The Time Traveler's Wife

It's an admirable effort, but one that simply underscores how unadaptable this material might be -- the bottom line being that if time is indeed precious, these six episodes finally feel too much like a waste of it.

There’s nothing about this new version of The Time Traveler’s Wife that hooked us in so we could take this romantic ride with Henry and Claire. It doesn’t help that the show is cheekier than it really needs to be.

Theo James and Rose Leslie are] done no favors by a narrative that never seems to have wondered who Clare, especially, is beyond a time traveler’s wife — nor by their inability to generate any real sparks between them, much less any brilliant enough to serve as a beacon through space and time. ... The Time Traveler’s Wife fails so direly to mine any romance from its central premise that it starts to build a case for the opposite.

This is still a grown man interacting with the woman he'll eventually be sleeping with while she is a child playing with a toy horse. He's weirded out by it, and rightly so; therefore, so are we. Somehow there must be a means of pulling off these scenes in ways that don't make a person's skin crawl, but Moffat has not cracked that nut. ... Whether the main flaw in "The Time Traveler's Wife" is in the flatness of the prose or the emotional disconnect in the delivery is hard to say, but together they conspire to transform Clare into little more than a construct waiting to be animated.

So unsatisfying. ... The two [Theo James and Rose Leslie] have solid chemistry, and are charismatic. ... But based on these six episodes, I’d much rather watch Leslie and James using their talents elsewhere.

To be clear, the drama has many problems: Bad wigs, limp characterization, indifferent plotting. As grown-up Clare, Rose Leslie has to say one ridiculous thing after another.

The show lacks momentum, partially because its neglect to establish a fixed, forward-moving “present” creates the sense of drifting unmoored through the decades. If you put aside the grooming issue, there’s just not much that’s distinctive about the characters. ... In the absence of even that kernel of enjoyment, all The Time Traveler’s Wife has to offer is an extended, painfully literal allegory for the bromide that true love transcends time.

The most off-putting thing about The Time Traveler’s Wife, right from the jump, is how strangely chintzy and thin it looks. ... Bad news. It does get more sad, but it absolutely does not know how to make that emotional gravity tie into the silly fun stuff.

[Theo James'] wooden performance would be more interesting if he were actually a tree. No, the real star of this woeful, pointless television programme is its toxic gender and sexual politics. ... No matter the timeline the writing, acting, directing, editing, and music range from mediocre to horrible.