TV

The Girl in the Tin: "The Time Traveler's Wife" features some of the most embarrassing scenes on television this year

HBO's new series based on the novel "The Time Traveler's Wife" shakes off what made the original a success, the same balance tending to perfection between romance and fantasy.

The TV adaptation is devoted to forced dramas and kitsch, and the star in front of him is so bad that sometimes it's even hard to watch

Ido Yeshayahu

17/05/2022

Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 00:00

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Trailer for the series "The Time Traveler's Wife" (HBO)

As is usually the case with time travel stories, that of "Time Traveler's Wife" is also complicated.

When 28-year-old Henry first met 20-year-old Claire, she had already met her nearly one hundred and fifty times.

He accompanied all of her childhood and adolescence: At one point in his life, when he was already married to Claire, Henry jumped in time and repeatedly came to the clearing where his future wife used to stay in the estate where she grew up, from age 6 to 18. Claire grew up with the man's constant visits This graduate, who taught her a lot of things, enriched her mind and life, and inevitably made her base all her heart inclination on his character - who was also very beautiful, in case she needed further persuasion.

Although Henry did not know Claire as a child, when she entered his life at the end of his third decade, she already knew how to tell him that she was the love of his life and he was the love of her life.

The fact that she was beautiful helped him believe her.

What worked so well in the book "The Time Traveler's Wife" is the purposeful tone in which Audrey Nifanger described the tale at its center.

After all, in the first place there is no need to exaggerate because the idea is so big.

The love story of Claire and Henry is doomed for both of them without them having any option at all to refuse, had they wanted to.

The universe chose it for them.

And not only that, but their story has a circularity that gives it eternity.

When Henry grows older he will first meet the girl Claire, and when she grows up she will first meet Henry, and so on over and over again forever.

Wisely Nipanger presented in the novel an equilibrium inclined to perfection: fantasy moderates the schmaltz, romance ground the magic.

Henry's ability is more of a disability than a gift, and as such, although it directed him to Claire and vice versa, it also poses great difficulties and challenges to their life together.

Henry has no control over time travel - when a jump will occur, where he will go or where he will land, other than knowing he will reach some event in his personal life.

He may meet himself from another time, his parents in their youth and of course Claire.

Most of the time the leap will be to the past, but sometimes it also gets glimpses into the future, and these are always ominous.

In addition, since the aisles in time leave his clothes and other belongings behind, Henry always emerges completely naked.

The girl Claire knows how to leave for him clothes and shoes she took from her father, but not always the time traveler lands in hospitable places, so he had to adapt from a young age skills like burglary, pickpocketing and faster running than those who chase after him.

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On the face of it the ideal matchmaking, and in practice not.

The series "The Time Traveler's Wife" (Photo: Macall B. Polay / HBO)

British TV writer and creator Stephen Moffat admired Nifanger's novel early on.

In 2006 he even inspired a popular episode of "Doctor Who", "The Girl in the Brotherhood", in which the Doctor emerges in Madame de Pompadour's life from childhood to adulthood, helping her fight an entity that seeks to harm her.

Moffat's fondness for complex stories - which has been evident throughout his career, from the comedy "Couples" and through "Sherlock" he created with Mark Gates - seems in this case like the ideal match between creator and work.

The fact that it was made in a hostel considered like HBO also sounds like a promise of repair, after the 2009 film that failed to do so.

In practice, the TV version of "The Time Traveler's Wife" is another disappointment.

Moffat preys a bit on the plot details to create much more blatant moments - ones that are completely absent from the book or amplified to dramatic highs.

When it works, the effect is strong even if the manipulation behind it is noticeable;

Like for example when the young Claire finds out that she will be married to Henry, her wish, or in a scene where one of the characters realizes that she will not be among the living in a few years.

Meanwhile Moffat is also educated to update "The Time Traveler's Wife" to a time when the term "grooming" casts a shadow over this whole story of the older Henry and Claire the girl.

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Fans might forgive him for the generous nudity.

Theo James, The Time Traveler's Wife (Photo: Macall B. Polay / HBO)

A contrasting being that just doesn’t fit here.

Rose Leslie, The Time Traveler's Wife (Photo: Macall B. Polay / HBO)

But when that does not work - the series ranges from forced, complicated and over-filmed moments, to some of the most embarrassing scenes on television this year.

For example, a message that Henry from the future passes on to Claire to his young mother, or the wedding song of the protagonist couple, or triangles and love quarters that the series peck at for a moment without any development.

Or, in a ridiculous choice, the very idea that the framework for the whole story is video interviews with the older Claire and Henry.

A documentary-like touch that, beyond being detached and silly, is used to force the characters to dig us in with empty Sheffer sayings about love and life.

Maybe "Time Traveler's Wife" might have redeemed him at the center was a more successful duo, but Theo James (who left "Sanditon" after one season in favor of this project, and fans might forgive him for his great and generous nudity here) and especially Rose Leslie ("Game of Thrones," "The Best of the Battle") just isn't convincing enough.

In fact, Leslie is often difficult to watch.

Her contrasting being is probably appropriate for a character like Igrit the Free from Game of Thrones, but much less for a cosmic story about a pair of lovers whose love is already ripe and ready.

It's not clear what preceded what, but both the script and Leslie make Claire's character much more defiant, in what appears to be another attempt to inject forced drama into the protagonists' relationship.

And when Leslie embodies her old and conciliatory version of her character, the result is ridiculous on every level.

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Grooming?

The series "The Time Traveler's Wife" (Photo: Macall B. Polay / HBO)

Stephen Moffat is a gifted creator, but overall his adaptation - which all six episodes of his first season have been pre-sent for review - is a purposeful display of his bad inclinations, fondness for unnecessary complications and unnecessary embellishments.

Of course, there is no problem in principle to change the plot details of original material - only recently has the series "Glow" done it in a way that even upgrades the book on which it is based.

But the latest adaptation of "The Time Traveler's Wife" completely violates the ideal balance outlined by Nifanger, the one who made the book so successful and successful, giving up the subtlety of a theory in favor of mental storms accompanied by awful kitsch music.

If so - why bother with processing in the first place?

"Time Traveler's Wife" airs every Monday on Bite, Hot and Cellcom Tiwi, alongside airing in the United States.

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