Timeless is back thanks to fans — and it's just as delightfully corny: EW review

Improbably rescued from cancellation at the eleventh hour by fans last year, Timeless is finally back — and in news that will surely please avid viewers, the show’s cheesy formula of will-they-or-won’t-they romance, elaborate period costuming, and time-traveling shenanigans remains firmly intact.

The second season of the NBC drama begins, fittingly, with a time jump, tying up season 1’s many loose ends while also leaving room for a typically, delightfully corny trip back 100 or so years into the past. Lucy (the great Abigail Spencer) has gone missing as the premiere begins, leaving Wyatt (Matt Logan) and Rufus (Malcolm Barrett) to once more defy the rules of time and space in order to find her. Before long, they do — and together, the trio is tasked with preserving yet another set of pivotal historical incidents.

In case last year’s adventures weren’t enough to convince you, the season 2 premiere confirms that there’s no parallel too outrageous for Timeless to draw. This time, troubles — to put it mildly — between Lucy and her deceitful mother (Susanna Thompson) are contrasted with those of scientists Marie Curie and her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie. Turns out even children of iconic figures from history have complicated relationships with their parents. Indeed, in Timeless, lessons are learned in the most surprising of places (and eras).

It’s all part of the transporting fun, of course, but there’s some reason for concern. There are many moving parts to this fundamentally silly show right now, including a cliffhanger to end the premiere that adds yet another duplicitous element to the action. So far, the show still has plenty of the B-movie gunfights and ridiculous anachronisms which characterized its initial appeal. Let’s just hope the mounting conspiracies and exhausting twists don’t dilute the retro-escapist vibe. B-