Travelers: Season 1 (2016)

Travelers is a smart, captivating series, but it is also edgy (warning to those who consider FBI agents cornering killers to be too stressful, and those who consider from one to three F-words in an episode to be unwatchable). (A word is not a bomb. Colin Firth's outburst in The King's Speech is a depth charge: "F! F! F! F! F!") Most significantly, the opening of the pilot episode establishes that time travelers arrive from the future into the 21st century by violently transporting into the minds of persons who have been historically documented as about to die in less than one minute. The newly occupied mind does not die and begins his or her assigned mission, sometimes as part of a team (but also having to adopt a semblance of the prior person's life, while hiding their new personality and all activities tied to their mission). Time travel stories are a bear to write, and to get right, yet this series does an excellent job at not just telling a gripping yarn, but ramping up the tension with complications on complications. Every character is good in his or role, esp. "Grace" in the final episodes. The missions of the team secretly led by Eric McCormack's FBI agent character are at risk as layers of opposition mount (right up to the final scene). A core theme of the show is: Who is planning each mission -- and the subsequent orders that follow? How do the travelers change the lives of their previous tenants? And how is it that humans aspire to loyalty, morality, compassion, and faith, even (and esp.) when do-or-die plans go awry? I have watched this series twice back to back, and I can't wait for the second season. Enjoy! 4.5 stars. (8-21-2017)