NBC’s Timeless aired its pilot episode Monday night and proved that history can be changed but the topic of racism will never stop being exploited on television.
The new drama series revolves around historian Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer), Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan (Matt Lanter), and time machine pilot Rufus Carlin (Malcolm Barrett) as a team who chases Garcia Flynn, the man who stole a time machine in an attempt to derail and thus alter American history.
This episode brings the protagonists, via a secondary time machine, to New Jersey in 1937 to try to stop Flynn from delaying the Hindenburg disaster to kill more people. While this episode did bring up some historical knowledge, it did not fail to deliver the political agenda of racial tension.
Rufus, who is black, balks at joining the other time travelers, mentioning how America has a long history of racism and he wouldn’t be excited to visit the past. “I am black,” he says. “There is literally no place in American history that'll be awesome for me.” While his thoughts may not be so farfetched, NBC wants to make sure it’s always in the forefront of the viewer’s mind.
In one particular scene, the team is in a bar, but all the white men are glaring at Rufus so Lucy tells him he should probably wait outside. “On a scale from Million Man March to Mississippi Burning, how safe do you think I'm gonna be out there?” he snarks.
Later, they all end up in jail and Rufus has to create a distraction so they may escape. His confrontation with the 1930s police officer turns into quite the speech gloating about the rise of African Americans in the future, praising Obama’s election and even going so far as to say O.J. Simpson was guilty but “we don’t care.” Yikes.
Wyatt: I know how to get out.
Lucy: How?
Wyatt: [Hisses] Make a distraction. –
Rufus: Uh...ahem. Excuse me, can I get a glass of water, please, sir?
Police Officer: Swallow your spit, boy.
Rufus: I'm not a boy, actually. –
Police Officer: Excuse me?
Rufus: You have eyes, right? You can tell I'm not a child, and I am definitely not your son, so don't call me "Boy." –
Police Officer: I'm not sure you realize where you are, boy.
Rufus: Actually, I do. I'm in the damn Stone Age, but, man, I hope you live a long, long life. Long enough to see Michael Jordan dunk, Michael Jackson dance, Mike Tyson punch, really, just, any black guy named Michael. O.J.? Yeah, he gets off. He did it, but we don't care. And Obama, he's the president. 2008. That's gonna suck for you! I hope you see it all. Because the future is not on your side, boy.
It seems fitting that Obama is brought up and the fact that “the future is not on your side.” Obama has single-handedly divided this country more than ever before. Forget it sucking for that old racist police officer; it sucks for all of America, the future is not on anyone’s side!
Hopefully this show will go into detail of how the time machine was originally created. Maybe then we can return to 2008 and prevent Obama from being elected. #KeepTheChange
