Netflix’s Travelers: A Pleasant Surprise (Review)

Netflix specials are a great way to pass time whenever there isn’t anything interesting on TV. Some of them get overlooked due to the high number of shows released by the streaming giant. One of these overlooked Netflix specials is Travelers. What makes this show special is the premise and nature of the plot. It takes existing concepts of cyber-punk (like that in Altered Carbon) and merges it with time-traveling quite seamlessly.

The Premise of the Show

The creator of the show is Brad Wright. He is still a relatively new name in the industry and thus chose a very unique idea for Travelers as a Netflix Special. The show is based in the present time, but with slight twists. In the future, humans have made the planet Earth almost uninhabitable. The remaining humans live in massive dome-shaped shelters. An AI-Powered supercomputer called ‘The Director’ sends human consciousness from the year 2448 to the present day. The Director ‘transfers’ their consciousness into humans or host bodies that were about to die. The overwriting human consciousness is called a traveler. Travelers then carry out orders from The Director to prevent catastrophes from happening that destroy Planet Earth.

The Plot and characters

The plot of Travelers revolves around one team. Grant Mclaren (played by Eric McCormack) is the leader of that team. Meanwhile, Marcy (Mackenzie Porter), Carly (Nesta Cooper), Trevor (Jared Abrahamson) and Philip (Reilly Dolman) are his teammates. Their mission is to follow the Director’s orders and prevent the world from destruction.

The characters of Travelers have many talents that make them unique for the group. Eric McCormack’s character has the ability to speak every language on Earth. Similarly, Reilly Doman’s character is a historian who is able to recall every single event in human history. It can be as small as a single individual’s death with remarkable precision. Every character has their own special trait that makes them vital for the survival of the team.

Final Verdict

The cast did a splendid job with their characters. Each of them was able to portray their internal conflict quite well, which mainly revolved around the conflict between their missions and the lives of their hosts. As a viewer, you could empathize with those characters. Similarly, the missions and their importance was never understated. This proves that Brad Wright did a wonderful job with his writing and did justice to the script. Moreover, Brad made sure that the plot never overwhelmed the viewers. The show felt complex, but easy to understand simultaneously. That is very crucial for a show that revolves around time travel.

Furthermore, the writers of Travelers formed a critique of the bounties of nature and human decadence of current times. They made it obvious that the current standards of living for human beings are not sustainable for the future.

These factors made this show very easy to binge-watch while being insightful at the same time. Netflix specials have a vast variety of shows, yet ‘Travelers’ stands out quite significantly from among them. Therefore, it is safe to say that Travelers is a pleasant surprise. The show has a total of 3 seasons that are highly watchable. Rotten Tomatoes’ audience and critical scores suggest the same.