Critic Reviews

The series makes full use of guest stars, introducing heavy hitters who seamlessly integrate into this wild time-jumping story. Season 2 of Quantum Leap also welcomes its new cast members in a staggered and organic way that avoids overwhelming the audiences with too many new faces and moving parts. This is especially applaudable as the season is wider in scope and higher in stakes.

The refreshed "Quantum Leap" takes barely a breath in establishing its back story, its premise or its characters. ... The new show has a number of welcome nods to the past, including the presence of Ernie Hudson ... The possibilities are vast and the ideas elastic. As the show hardly seems poised to put off loyal fans, let's hope it's given time to fully exercise its evident sense of mischief.

Raymond Lee makes a decent first impression as the new Leaper, physicist Ben Song. ... The new “Leap” does have the added element of a connection to Beckett and his hologram companion, Al (the late Dean Stockwell), but that serialized story seems destined to drag on endlessly unless and until Bakula reprises his role.

That earnestness can be a double-edge sword, of course, and at times Quantum Leap can veer into the cheesy territory, but that cheese is mostly kept in check thanks to the main cast.

Unfortunately, the relationship between agent and handler is less fascinating than in the original. ... That said, this “Leap” is also less dependent on that core relationship. ... The story in the pilot (the only episode screened for critics) is diverting enough for an episode with a lot of heavy lifting to do. But every episode is a new opportunity for the show to sink or swim on its own merits. In other words: look before you “Leap.”

While it has modernised the story (there are smartphones, although, handily, these are left behind during time travel), it feels like a relic of an earlier age. So many recent reboots have felt pointless; this hasn’t escaped that trap, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it.

NBC’s Quantum Leap reboot has a charming star and slick action scenes, but gets bogged down by corny dialogue and dead-end mysteries.

While the premise stood out at the time – representing the kind of unorthodox swing the late NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff liked to take – its formula of using the past as a window into the present feels decidedly less distinctive now, and balancing that with the serialized component feels a trifle strained at first blush.

The new Quantum Leap could end up being decent, but it needs to elevate itself above being a standard dark NBC procedural and take itself a lot less seriously.

The pilot for this new Quantum Leap is 41-ish minutes of nearly nonstop exposition and hand-holding, making sure both that new viewers understand every aspect of the premise and that returning fans understand the connection between this update and the original — no matter how irrelevant it ends up being.