The Time Traveler's Wife: Why Watch the TV Series?

The Time Traveler's Wife

"I married a time traveler ... It's complicated." This is how the first episode of The Time Traveler's Wife (A timeless love) begins, the new series that from June 13 debuts exclusively on Sky and streaming on NOW. The new sci-fi romance HBO, directed by David Nutter, is signed by Steven Moffat (Sherlock, Doctor Who).



Little Claire is waiting for Henry Buy NOW Smart Stick with the first 3 months to choose between Cinema or Entertainment on Amazon Based on the novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife tells the story of Henry and Claire, a loving couple known in very special circumstances, violating any temporal law. Man, in fact, is able to travel back and forth in time in apparently unknown ways, creating a series of paradoxes on which the entire love story is based. In fact, they meet for the first time, and in a completely innocent way, when Claire is just a child.

An interesting cast

Henry and Claire are played by two well-known and highly regarded personalities: Theo James (The Divergent Series, Sanditon) and Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, Vigil). In 2009, a first film adaptation of Niffenegger's novel was a blockbuster: with the questionable Italian title Un amore all'imporno, Robert Schwenkte's film stars Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, who immediately show a certain affinity. Even the new duo already seems quite close-knit, perhaps thanks to the dialogues that give a certain complicity to the couple, albeit in a less cheesy way.

A careful choice of the cast is evident, especially in their appearance, faithful to the original characters . The same goes for the little actress and the very young actor who play the two protagonists at an early age: Eveline McDonell and Jason David.

The evident freshness from the first adaptation

As already mentioned, The Time Traveler's Wife series treats the love story of Henry and Claire in a less cloying way than the 2009 feature film. from their "first real meeting" in the library, with subsequent dinner. It is bizarre to try to establish a real order of events, but it can be said that this corresponds to the exact moment when the timelines of the two lovers run their natural course, despite the fact that they have known each other many years before with a large gap. of age. When the two interact, the dialogues are brilliant, shrewd, full of sarcasm and irony. The game of "back and forth" carries the conversation forward at a fast pace; nothing to do with A sudden love.




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Directing is a qualitative leap

The first two episodes of The Time Traveler's Wife are a more than enough taste to capture a directing work that aims to an accurate realization of the new HBO product, wisely exploiting storytelling, photography and editing. There are, especially at the beginning, many high quality urban scenes, those in which Henry finds himself repeatedly catapulted into a different time. He is observed falling out of nowhere onto a dumpster or sidewalk, miraculously clinging to the ledge of a tall building while the depth of field shows the lights of the city. They are shots that have a pleasant aesthetic, regardless of the unusual context. When he travels, in fact, he is always naked and bewildered, but on these occasions the camera manages to disguise this recurring detail, not falling into bad taste.



Henry in one of his time travels In Schwentke's film, the protagonist's sudden disappearances are made with questionable special effects, clearly children of their time. Here, on the other hand, there is a skilful use of shots, which more often than not suggests the volatilization of the character without resorting to crude expedients that would accentuate the fiction. Some parallels are really well thought out, and often have an apparent symbolism. For example, the scenes in which Claire and Henry are seated at tables in a bar or restaurant somehow offer a sort of constant within this bizarre "timeless love". It is an effective directorial choice, strongly allegorical, palpable from the first two episodes.

A complexity that does not want to confuse

An aspect that immediately arouses attention is the meticulousness with which the narrative wants at all costs to be understood by the viewer. The second episode is already beginning to confuse the cards: the first temporal paradoxes entangle the plot. It is true that the appearance of the characters tries to establish points of reference: Henry's hair is a good paradigm. However, this is not always enough, and confusion is already around the corner. This is where some small elements that are not at all obvious come into play: the captions. Every time the protagonist travels in time, a small sentence indicates his age, and of course this also happens for Claire.

The intent that transpires is that of not wanting to risk disorienting the viewer, who, otherwise, he would soon abandon the vision, or continue it without grasping fundamental points. In fact, it is expected that the next episodes will be even more complex and articulated, but The Time Traveler's Wife wants to guide the vision of itself at all costs, undoubtedly until the end.