The Time Traveler's Wife 1.6: Brutal Truths and a Ray of Hope

Well, I thought The Time Traveler's Wife finale on HBO Max was superb, even though ...

[Big spoilers ahead ... ]

It was the ugliest episode of the series.  Palpably brutal, with Henry's naked time traveling body hitting the floor so many times it was making my eyes sore, not to mention my soul.  And that was the least of it.  Far worse was:

1. Henry discovering that he's aging more quickly than normal, non-traveling people, and he'll be dying, what, when he's in his early 50s?  

2. He can't give Clare what she most wants, given his frequent absence even when he's alive: a child.  It seems every time he gets her pregnant, the embryo or fetus time travels and of course can't survive.

As a result, Henry has a vasectomy, because he can't bear to keep doing that her.  But in a happy ending -- at least a hopeful ending -- Clare encourages younger, "asshole" Henry to keep seeing her.  He has not yet had a vasectomy.

And there this wondrous, wild story ends?  As I've been saying, I hope not.  There are possibilities to explore.    Maybe Henry can figure out a way to extend his life.  Maybe he can connect with some genius gynecologist who can bring his and Clare's baby to term.

I don't know, I'm not a medical expert.  But I do know I much enjoyed the six episodes of this story, even though they had their flaws, and I'd be up any time for seeing more.

Great acting by Theo James and Rose Leslie in the title roles, and I thought Josh Stamberg was impressive in this episode as Henry's father.   Kudos to everyone who made this short season, and I look forward to seeing its continuation someday somewhere.

See also The Time Traveler's Wife 1.1: Off to a Fine, Funny, Complex Start ... 1.2: Fate ... 1.3: Lies and Love ... 1.4: Mercurial Stock ... 1.5 Hair

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The Time Traveler's Wife 1.3: Lies and Love

A powerful third episode of The Time Traveler's Wife on HBO last night, in which Henry and Clare both lie to each on crucial, life-shaking matters.

[Spoilers follow ... ]

Clare as a tweener and teenager repeatedly asks Henry on his many visits if they will be married in later life.  He repeatedly tells her no, and eventually shouts out the truth when the guy who raped the teenaged Clare demands to know why Henry is so upset about what happened to her.  Ironically, though that's not quite the word, Henry knows that the rapist burned Clare with cigarettes but not that he raped her, because Clare repeatedly told Henry that the guy had hurt but not raped her.

What are we to make of these mutual lies?  They are born of love, or at least good intentions.  Henry thinks knowing too much of her future will damage Clare.  And she thinks telling Henry the full extent of what happened to her might get Henry to really kill the rapist.  But you might not agree.  Some observer of human nature -- maybe Albert Schweitzer? -- once remarked that lying, whatever the lie, is a "treason of the soul," that always diminishes the liar.  On the other hand, Sissela Bok in her excellent 1978 book Lying evaluates various kinds of lies, and singles out "white lies" as sometimes justified and doing some good in this world.

The Time Traveler's Wife, like all excellent fiction, deserves credit for addressing such complex moral issues.  And this episode was especially well acted, not only by Rose Leslie as the 16-year old and older Clare, but Caitlin Shorey as the tweener and Everleigh McDonell as the younger Clare.  They join Theo James' Henry in a really effectively acted drama that doesn't miss a beat.

And I'll see you back here next week with my review of the next episode.

See also The Time Traveler's Wife 1.1: Off to a Fine, Funny, Complex Start ... 1.2: Fate

The Time Traveler's Wife 1.1: Off to a Fine, Funny, Complex Start

The Time Traveler's Wife debuted on HBO last night. Based on the 2003 novel by  Audrey Niffenegger which I haven't read, made into a movie in 2009 which I saw and really liked but didn't review (because I was too busy promoting the first edition of my then new book, New New Media), HBO's offering is a brand-new series.  I thought the first episode was excellent.

The set up: Henry is the time traveler, pulled into the past, sometimes the future, with nothing but his skin, not of his own volition, usually in the timeframe of his own lifetime.  He can meet earlier and later versions of himself, and often does.  Clare is the wife.  Henry, already a man, and already married to Clare, travels back in time and meets her as a girl (first time in her life she's seen him).  They love each other, but their lives together are certainly not easy.   I know some of what will happen in subsequent episodes because I saw the movie, as I said above, but this review will be spoiler-free.

There's probably more humor than heartbreak in this story, but I wouldn't call it a comedy, and it's a frothy mix of frivolity and potentially life-and-death situations and predicaments at hand.  Henry and Clare are both highly intelligent, which makes the challenges they encounter, together and separate, a lot of fun to see. Also, intellectually provocative.

The acting in the lead roles is great, just what you'd want in narrative like this.  Theo James, last seen and missed now as Sidney in Sanditon, is perfect as Henry, irreverent, fast thinking and fast acting, and pretty good in a fight.  Rose Leslie, who lit up the screen as Ygritte in Game of Thrones, ranges as required from spitfire to vulnerable, as good at strategizing as Henry, and at least as important a mover of events in the story as Henry.

So we're off to fine start with our central couple.  We'll meet other characters, of course, as well as seemingly insurmountable problems -- as befits the genre of time travel -- in the episodes ahead, and I'll be back here with reviews of each of them.

Sanditon: Wonderful but Cries Out for a Sequel

A belated but much appreciative review of Sanditon, folks - the Jane Austen unfinished novel, completed by Andrew Davies. Well, not completely appreciative, because I didn't find the narrative satisfyingly complete, meaning, I didn't like the ending.

But before that, Sanditon on the screen offers a Jane Austen story updated with more sexuality and a social relevance that goes beyond romance and class.   As one of the actors mentioned in the commentary after the episodes, the setting by the Regency-era sea in the south of England almost feels like a Western.  Except there's no gunslinging.  Just a lot of building a town out of mud, or turning a town built in the mud into a colorful resort.

There's plenty of romance, unrequited and otherwise.  What's the opposite of unrequited, requited?  Yeah, I guess so, as in returned. But there's nothing quiet about Sanditon and its inhabitants, who bubble with passion, dreams of a better tomorrow, and firmly believe that a good regata or ball can always make things better.  The costumes are fabulous, as is the acting of everyone.  Rose Williams is especially wonderful as Charlotte and Theo James as Sidney.

[spoilers follow]

Which brings me to the ending.  I don't care for unhappy endings.  Davies expanded on Austen in lots of good ways, but I always loved the ending to Pride and Prejudice.  Sidney's sacrifice may have seemed to be necessary to save his brother's dream, but there had to be another way.  My wife actually suggested a good one: Georgiana's money.  And for that matter, why was Lady Denham unwilling to help after the fire?  Surely, she saw that it wasn't Tom's fault.  Was she punishing him for not getting insurance?

All of this can be answered in a sequel.  I know, there's no sequel planned.  But, hey, if you've gone to the trouble of brilliantly fleshing out and extending a Jane Austen story, if you have the inspiration and talent to bring it into the 21st century while leaving it two centuries earlier, why not go the extra mile of giving it a brilliant Jane Austen ending?  That's what sequels are for.