What I’m Watching: Timeless

Timeless: Season 2, Episode 2 “The Darlington 500” (B)

It’s confusing watching this show and “Legends of Tomorrow” back-to-back since both crews are racing to stop time from being changed in irreparable ways. This one, while less sinister since it doesn’t involve any sort of demons, tries to take itself too seriously at the wrong moments, leading to a sometimes less than fully satisfying experience. The casual racism displayed is a particular weakness of this show, since it’s always Rufus rolling his eyes about how intolerant people were back then rather than facing any true danger for sticking out like a sore thumb in an era that wouldn’t simply have shrugged off the color of his skin. In this episode, he got to give Wendell the nod that he didn’t get and then had the symbolic act of two black men driving the car while their two white companions had to be hidden. What’s much more interesting is the notion that Matt Long from “Jack and Bobby” and “The Deep End” was a famed NASCAR drive Wyatt remembered loving when he was a kid who was actually a sleeper agent planted by Rittenhouse to detonate a bomb. Emma sure is ruthless and cruel, inviting Ryan’s wife to the race so that she could threaten her life if Ryan tried to deviate from the mission. They really need to start working with Flynn so they’re not always a step behind, racing away and giving Wyatt the thrill of his life getting to drive a racer’s car. Agent Christopher having Mason arrested publicly hardly seems productive, especially when Rittenhouse grandfather Nicholas Keynes is busy printing out all of Wikipedia and drawing cryptic murals.