It seems that 2023 is the year for timer-travel. Or was. Or will be. As everyone knows it’s the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who, complete with three specials starting next month and a Christmas adventure for the incoming Doctor. Quantum Leap got a second season, we’ve also had Netflix‘s genre-twisting Bodies and this November also sees the return of the acclaimed The Lazarus Project for SKY.
Discerning viewers will remember that the first season of The Lazarus Project debuted in early summer 2022 in the UK (later episodes were screened on the US’s TNT platform) and was a stealth hit for the broadcaster. It concerns a secret team with a remit to rewrite history and avoid disasters – the caveat is that they have a limited time-span to do so (often less than a year) and that such rewriting can come at a high personal cost. Though there have been plenty of time-travel shows in recent memory, the show was far darker and twisty than many might have expected with some clever and highly-emotional elements to its story-arc. The first run was potentially full of trigger-warning aspects including the death of several major characters, the loss of a child (when one character’s pregnancy was repeatedly cancelled-out by changes). Each episode cleverly built on percpetions (possible misconcpetions) about events we’d already seen. But reviews were almost universally impressive and news that a second run had been commissioned were welcome.
Without spoiling the end of that first run, the team were left in a disastrous situation that couldn’t be as easily rewritten as before… and the second season, debuting 15th November, begins, there’s a literal race against time to bend the rules of time-travel even further and possibly a chance for some of the team to redeem themselves after recent suspect choices. The returning cast includes Pappa Essiedu (I May Destroy You), Anjli Mohindra (Bodyguard), Charly Clive (Pure), Vinette Robinson (Boiling Point), Rudi Dharmalingam (Wakefield), Caroline Quentin and Tom Burke (Strike) and there’s some new – if not unfamiliar faces joining up, including Royce Pierreson (The Irregulars, The Witcher), Colin Salmon (Resident Evil, Limitless), Safia Oakley-Green (Sherwood), Lorne MacFayden (Vigil), Zoe Telford (Genius), Sam Troughton and James Atherton (Hollyoaks).
You can watch the trailer for the second season (of eight episodes) above:
