Watching: The Lazarus Project

2022-2023, download

I binged watched this over the Xmas time period of 2023-24, during the time I was not writing about TV.  I was also not sure I wanted to write about it as a TV Show when it is pretty much built from the tropes that drive our Loopty Loo project. But since started back-tracking on that earlier decision, and Kent pointed out I had not yet done so, I might as well add it to the Watching list. Once we resurrect the LL, I might even re-write the post in honour.

So yeah, it is an entire series based around a time loop agency. That has been done before, but not quite like this. You see, this agency doesn't necessarily time-loop but constantly reset to a prior date until they undo whatever apocalyptic event  they are trying to fix. And if things go right, nobody even notices that the event was undone. Unless you are a member of the agency, or one of the poor sods with the natural capacity to notice the time loop happening.

But I get ahead of myself. Waaaay ahead. Well, not that far ahead. You see George (Paapa Essiedu, Genie) woke up on July 1st. Six months later he woke up on July 1st again. It feels weird to him, like people are fucking with him. He sees life if he chose differently. Then, six months later, he wakes up on July 1st again. This is the basis for all time loop stories, this is the key to it all. Then Wes (Caroline Quentin, Jonathan Creek) appears and tells him they know its happening and asks him to join The Lazarus Project, and explains why they exist. She does not explain how it works, only that when horrible events take place, the kind that can lead to the end of the world, they make a call and the world resets back to July 1st. 

They've been doing it a while. There have been a lot of July 1sts. If they let the world go past the July 1st date then there return date is updated by another year. That means, if something happens and they cannot find the way to fix what happened, they keep on repeating attempts until they fix it. Then they let the world go on until the next time a turn-back event is required. Also, it takes a world-ender to initiate it, so the death of a loved one doesn't count. Also, having children is not advisable, as you can imagine how things could go wrong if you turn-back to before the conception date. Any factor can undo your child as you remember it. The rules suck.

It is those rules, the basis of many of the tropes of time loops, that the show explores while having fun with time "travelling" adventure thriller plots. One of their number, Dennis (Tom Burke, The Wonder), loses a child and ends up becoming a world ending terrorist in order to influence a turn-back event. And then George, the new guy, the main character of the show, the nice guy, loses his girlfriend Sarah (Charly Clive, All My Friends Hate Me). And they won't reset things just for him. So, suddenly George is not so nice a guy.

One of the questions we ask in our project is, "Do you see other people trapped in the time loop as real?" In the primary timeline you knew them as people, but if you are looping a long number of times, then what does it matter if you fuck with then, what does it matter if you kill them -- after all, things will reset and they will not know. Unless they are one of your fellow agency folks, who will remember.

And what about messing with the loops, what about messing with people's lives within the loop? Sure, that is the point of the agency, but they are saving the world. What if you just want to make that cute girl like you? Let it happen naturally or make a few notes during the time loops and up your chances. Ends up being kind of creep factor nine, even if it has always been treated as one of the fun, playful tropes in all the comedy movies. Is increasing your chances unethical? You decide. The show just plays them out and lets the viewer decide if they like the characters after all that.

That's season one. Season two adds in multiple timelines, doppelgangers, competing agencies all turning back time, all fucking creating their own time loops, doing as they please until.... well, until they break the universe. The ante is up, the scale is increased, the mind-fuckery up-ed by the nth degree, paradoxes abound and unforeseen consequences are around every corner.

I loved the show even when it made me queasy, even when characters made terrible choices, even when things were just going to hell in a handbasket. I love shows that present to you the consequences of your timey wimey hijinx.

Can't wait for a Season 3.