Should You Look Forward To Hindsight?

What Is This Thing?

On the eve of her second marriage, Becca looks back with regret on her first, mourning her friendship with her last Maid Of Honour and wishing to end their ten-year estrangement. So it's convenient (but not really) when she wakes up the next day to find that she's returned to the day of her first marriage, twenty years ago. How can she bring the lessons she's learned over the course of her life into her 1995 existence? And can she possible go back to living without an iPhone? (Because I sincerely don't think I could.)

When Is It On?

Wednesdays at 10 PM on VH1.

Why Was It Made Now?

VH1 is still a relatively new player in scripted series, so this light, pleasant Back To The Future/Do Over/Being Erica trifle is a safe bet to attract viewers who are...pretty much exactly my age. Seriously, every song that plays in the pilot is one that currently lives on that very iPhone I just said I couldn't live without -- particularly "Groove Is In The Heart," which (awesomely) closes out the episode.

What's Its Pedigree?

Emily Fox, who created the show, is not a name I know, but IMDb tells me she formerly worked on such similarly girly shows as The Ghost Whisperer and Jane By Design. As for the cast: series leads Laura Ramsey (as Becca), Sarah Goldberg (as her estranged friend, Lolly), Craig Horner (Becca's first fiancé Sean), and Collins Pennie (Xavier, a mysterious man who crosses Becca's path right before her time travel, and whom she then finds again at her old 1995 bar hangout) are new to me. However, Becca's whole family is played by character actor all-stars: her brother Jamie is played by Gossip Girl and Vanished alumnus John Patrick Amedori; her dad is Torch Song Trilogy's Brian Kerwin; and her mom is the great Donna Murphy. Another Center Stage alumna coming to scripted time travel-themed TV? 2015 is already better than 2014.

...And?

The early going of the episode is very economical in establishing who all the characters are, how they relate to each other, and where Becca is in her life: it's not that Andy (Nick Clifford), her second fiancé, is a catastrophically bad choice or anything; she just has a feeling he's not right -- and no, LOLLY, not because he's practically her cousin; their parents are just really really good friends!

But what I especially like is that Becca dissatisfaction with her life rests less with Andy than in her estrangement from Lolly (and whatever caused their catastrophic falling-out is still a mystery). Ramsey and Goldberg have great friend chemistry, which is good because the episode pretty much hinges on their two big scenes: first, when Becca comes over to their apartment and tries to prove to Lolly that she really has come from the future by telling Lolly a bunch of shit she remembers that 1995 Becca wouldn't find out until later (like that Lolly and Jamie just totally Did It); and then when Lolly and Becca meet up at their bar and Lolly asks her what the future is like. ("But I really love AOL!" "I know. And AOL loves you too.")

So far, refreshingly, all the people in Becca's life get to be three-dimensional -- even Sean, the guy that, by 2015, Becca has divorced. And though, by the time the episode ends, she's made a pivotal decision that might set her life on a radically different course, the show doesn't make it out as though it's the only decision that might change the course of her life.

Finally: even I can appreciate Becca's exuberance as she tells Lolly the "big," symbolic" thing she wants to do: "I want to smoke in a bar." She's also extremely right about clogs. Since moving to Hawaii, I've been enjoying my all baggy clothes/Birkenstocks/leggings lifestyle. Is Hawaii actually the '90s? Discuss!

...But?

I get that Becca's two weddings are, collectively, the peg for the action of the series, but when her first big epiphany about getting this chance to relive her twenties and thirties is "My soulmate's out there somewhere. Maybe I met him. Maybe I don't even know him yet. I want to find him," it makes her look like kind of a feeb. Why shouldn't she be focused on not just being a better friend to Lolly but staying friends? Why not work on her relationship with her brother so that she can maybe help keep him out of rehab? And, like, I know this isn't Early Edition or whatever, but still, our own Pilot Viruet's not wrong about this.

in Hindsight the main character goes back in time to 1995 and is all “AOL!” and “clogs!” but doesn’t tell ANYONE about 9/11 what the fuck

— icebox (@pilotbacon) January 6, 2015

We also don't know yet exactly how Xavier fits into all this, but so far he seems a lot like a Magical Black Man. I thought we were done with that.

...So?

As someone who was halfway through undergrad when Becca's first wedding is supposed to be taking place, this is right in my wheelhouse. If you want to join me, baby, just go ahead now.