The Lazarus Project

     Tam and I have been watching a British science-fiction series, The Lazarus Project.  It arrived in the U.S. already canceled, and I think that's a pity: it may be the best treatment of time travel in science fiction film and television.

     The story is heavily character-driven, echoing some of the themes and concepts in Fritz Lieber's "Change Wars" stories and even Johanna Russ's "Trans-Temporal Authority" that figures in several of her stories and novels.*  (Poul Anderson and John Varley wrote stories in this vein as well.)  The series doesn't bother to explain much, which is for the best: the "science" hardware in SF time travel is inherently handwavium that can't stand close examination.  Instead, the episodes and overall arc are as tightly plotted as a murder mystery.  There is no shortage of car chases and gunfights -- but they're in service of a convoluted story with plenty of "ah-ha!" moments.

     It may have been a little too hip for the room, too good as SF to hold a mass audience.  You have to be ready to buy in to the central conceit, that (to a greater or lesser extent) past events can be undone and redone.  But it got two seasons, and even if the series doesn't stick the landing (I don't know yet), it's a heck of a ride, at times as shades-of-gray as the best film noir. 
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* There might even be touches of Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" and the film Looper.  Another Heinlein story, "--All You Zombies--" was filmed as Predestination, which is probably the second-best time live-action time-travel story.