Frequency

Peyton List stars in this immediately riveting mix of police drama and time-bending fantasy.

Frank and Raimy are co-authors of their own personal histories. How they write it together, or mess it up together, could make an intriguing cop procedural.

Skillfully shot, with a slick concept and a strong cast, I was eager to see what happened next after viewing the premiere.

The producers and creator Jeremy Carver have deftly retrofitted a familiar film for the small screen with smart present-day touches and solid performances.

The show is no out-of-the-box winner, but it has possibilities to become an intriguing nighttime soap with sparks of electricity.

I do know that I like this opportunity for List as a TV star and tthe opening time-travel convolutions are treated to accentuate emotion and character relationships in a solid way. It has room to grow and room for improvement.

It’s hard to make an impression in a genre so heavily worked, especially with a series drawn from a moderately popular movie, but Frequency is in good hands and has promising ingredients.

The Dennis Quaid-Jim Caviezel movie has been reimagined as a story about a police detective (Peyton List, Blood & Oil) who's trying to save her long-dead father (Riley Smith, Nashville), and it packs the emotional punch of the original.

Frequency does a pretty solid job of juggling its balls and creating new intrigues. By the end of the premiere episode, another perplexing murder mystery is in play while Raimy wonders what hit her.

Frequency’s concept was mildly intriguing in theaters, and it’s mildly intriguing now, even with an extra layer or two of mushy TV-style goop on top of the story’s basic hokeyness. List and the other cast members give convincing enough performances.

Despite your understandable and probably entirely justified fear that the success of a show about a time-traveling ham radio will lead to a painful rash of sequels about time-traveling toaster-ovens and Waring blenders, Frequency is not so bad. The paradoxes of time-travel, though familiar to anybody with even a passing acquaintance with sci fi, are artfully woven in, and List is quite appealing as a daughter remaking her long-held image of a father she hardly knew.

Frequency is a much smaller story [than NBC's Timeless]: a daughter trying to save her father without endangering everyone else around them. It's a good story, but in essence, it feels very much like a movie story--which is exactly what it was. Whether it can work as a TV story, only time will tell.

List is earnest in her role, and manages to make the stranger aspects of the show’s time travel and inter-dimensional plot points feel grounded.

Those familiar with the source material will recognize the pilot is essentially the first two-thirds of the film. Some convincing performances from Smith and List get Frequency humming. But that’s just not enough buzz.

Frequency’s vintage equipment is missing its spark of life.

The movie moved me, but the show feels like it’s going to wear thin after the setup in the pilot.

The movie wasn't that great. It was just sort of OK. The series seems to be in pretty much the same territory.

It’s heartfelt and likable, but doesn’t quite justify its existence.

The characters and relationships are never specific or resonant enough to make the attempted blending of family drama, time travel series, and cop show memorable, or, perhaps more importantly, as addictive as the several other smart hybrid programs on the CW.