As the first episode of The Lazarus Project begins, George (Paapa Essiedu) wakes up next to his girlfriend on July 1. George admits he is a bit nervous since it is a big day today. Sarah (Charly Clive) offers to show him her breasts if he makes her toast before he leaves. He meets with someone later to discuss getting start-up money for a mobile phone application. George explains it is a pattern spotter. He says you step back and look at the data. He points out DeWhitt and Weston which is an export and trading company with an octogenarian CEO with multiple children from multiple marriages sitting on the board. George believes that is a company heading toward uncertainty. The app is going to be called Hazard Lights and they think it is going to change his life.

When George goes out with Sarah to celebrate, a news report talks about the possibility of another deadly virus. Later, Sarah congratulates him before showing him her positive pregnancy test. During their wedding, one of the guests begins coughing. Karl approaches George who is looking at a news article regarding a boardroom showdown for DeWhitt and Weston. Karl tells him she is a good woman and asks him to look after her. Three months later, a news report confirms that daily infections are growing at an alarming rate. Although MERS-22 symptoms are mild, people are encouraged to wear protective gear. By the time Sarah and George get a Christmas tree, they’re wearing masks. UK MERS-related deaths are more than 1,700 per day.

Both begin coughing while unwrapping Christmas gifts at home. When they go to the hospital, Sarah asks George whether he thinks they’re going to die. George immediately jumps back in time to July 1. She offers to show him her breasts for toast again. It looks like he takes off his wedding ring in the bathroom. At the bank, George tells the man that it has been a strange day because they’re already done this. He reminds the man that he gave him a big loan and he rented an office. When Sarah gets home that night, George tells her he thinks something is wrong. He confesses the meeting went terribly although they’ve done this before. George explains that they get married, have a baby, and people are getting sick again.

He promises he hasn’t taken anything and claims he is just tired instead. George didn’t get the loan this time. Later, he asks Sarah to take a pregnancy test even though she doesn’t think she needs it. Sarah argues it isn’t a good time to be pregnant because money is tight and it wasn’t planned. One night, Sarah gets up and finds George researching on the computer. She argues it’d be a good idea for him to see someone. She recommends seeing a psychologist or therapist and telling them about his dreams, but George is adamant they’re not dreams. He warns her that the MERS virus is going to mutate and spread. She pleads with him to talk to someone who can help because he is scaring her. At the school, Sarah tells Karl that she doesn’t recognize George anyone. It is like he woke up a different person. Karl wonders if he is checking out of the relationship.

Once she gets home, she finds George wearing a gas mask. He tells her what it says about doctors warning of an epidemic on the horizon. Although George says he is just trying to keep them safe, Sarah thinks he needs help. Everyone is worried about him while Karl thinks he has a personality disorder. George can understand why Karl would say that, but Karl is going to be coughing his lungs up in a mass grave. When Karl follows her outside, Archie (Anjli Mohindra) tells him to let her go because it isn’t going to work. She knows he has been searching for time loops and is worried about the outbreak. Archie admits it is worse than what the news is saying. She gives him an address that he should visit if he jumps back in time again. She walks away without telling him anything else. George tries to find the Clock Makers House on Fortune Road.

He finds it but doesn’t go inside. Around Christmas, he walks by a pub and sees Karl inside with Sarah. Before long, George returns to July 1. He kisses her before rushing off. She reminds him about the meeting at the bank, but George goes to the Clock Makers House instead. He runs into Archie and says he needs to know what is going on. She asks when he started noticing time jumping backwards. She tells him he is a mutant. Cells in his body have changed in an unusual way. A small percentage of the population can recall time jumps. Usually, the ability is manufactured and given to suitable candidates. Occasionally, someone will develop the ability organically. Archie believes he has experienced 20 time jumps in his life so far, but he didn’t remember them.

When he asks why time is jumping, she says they made it through The Lazarus Project. They’re a top-secret multinational organization dedicated to preventing and undoing mass extinction events via diplomatic, scientific, and militaristic means. They can make the time go backwards. Archie claims the world ended in 1963 when Russia and America launched nuclear warheads at each other. It ended in 1979 when Pakistan overreacted to their Prime Minister being assassinated by an Indian agent. It ended in 1983 when a scientist at the Center for Disease Control decided to take smallpox for a walk. Finally, it ended yesterday when they failed to develop a vaccination for a mutant strain of MERS. They managed to stop them with time travel after exhausting all other methods.

She takes him to another building. He asks if this is where they keep the time machine, but Archie says they don’t call it that because that isn’t what it is. They walk past a bunch of firearms before Archie says it is a singularity in space. When the screen comes on above him, she says that is the time machine. It is like a checkpoint in a video game. When you die, you return to the checkpoint. Their checkpoint is that moment or July 1st every year. Every time they go back, they’ll wake up on the morning of July 1, 2022 until they get to July 1, 2023. Then, it will become their new checkpoint. He asks whether you could use it to go back to London in the 1800s. Archie says she is a brown woman so she wouldn’t want to. Since he doesn’t have a degree in quantum physics, she doesn’t think she can explain it to him.

They didn’t do anything about 9/11 because the world didn’t end. They can’t reset every time something bad happens. She makes it clear that they’re not here to make the world a better place. Instead, they’re only here to stop it from ending. When asked about the coronavirus, Archie reminds him that they got a vaccine in nine months. He admits it is a lot to take in. Archie tells him not to worry about the loan because he has a very rare ability. She invites him to come save the world with them. When George returns home that night, he pretends he got the loan for his business. As George meets with the others the next day, he hears them talking about a dual injection six weeks apart. They’ll lose just under 20,000 people.

Wes (Caroline Quentin) tells them about a nuclear warhead called Big Boy was hijacked while in transit yesterday. It is non-operational without a unique detonator. Archie admits that things like this happen so they’re not worried about it too much. Everyone is introduced to George. Wes welcomes him to The Lazarus Project. Then, he is introduced to Greta (Salome Gunnarsdottir), Blake (Lorn Macdonald), the Dane (Lukas Loughran), and the others. Shiv (Rudi Dharmalingam) is called a ray of sunshine. George learns that they were chosen since one is from an ex-Danish Special Forces, another from the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and another from MI5. When George says he is an app developer, Shiv mockingly says that will come in handy.

George is invited to their celebration because they always go for cocktails and karaoke when they save humanity. In private, George reminds Archie that he isn’t a super-agent like they are. He asks how she knows he can do this. She believes he is highly educated and in good enough physical condition to do it. When time skipped back six months, he didn’t fall apart and instead started looking for answers. George confesses he fell apart a little bit though. He is told it feels pretty good when you save the world and he’ll see. While the others sing, Shiv admits he doesn’t do that although it helps the others unwind.

George says they’re the two mutants. Shiv didn’t come from the MI5, police, or army. He says they’re not the same because he was born with this gift while George has had it for five minutes. George says it was not very nice to see the world end twice. Shiv argues it changes a person. Everyone else thinks they can deal with it using a song and a drink, but it’ll eventually catch up with you. When George says he is thinking about marriage, Shiv warns him there aren’t many happy marriages in Lazarus. While life continues for George and Sarah, he begins learning to shoot for his new job. After an exhausting day at work, George returns home where Sarah tells him about Karl’s dinner party next week. When they go over there to Karl’s place, he tells everyone about his netball game.

Karl has money put away and wonders whether George’s app would recommend any good investment opportunities. George tells him about DeWhitt and Weston. George’s marksmanship skills are getting better. He tells Archie at work that the algorithm for his app can help identify suspicious activity in business accounts. It flagged an account in Russia that was bringing in unusual funds. The account was linked to a security company responsible for safeguarding Big Boy. Wes checks out the last name before explaining it is linked to a man called Dennis Rebrov who is on many terror watchlists in the world. He used to have George’s desk since he was one of the best members of Lazarus.

Later, Archie tells George that was a good catch before reminding him that tonight is his first checkpoint as a Lazarus agent. George asks whether Rebrov is the only one of them to have gone bad only for Archie to say there have been others. Rebrov was the worst. Sarah and George have sex as soon as they wake up on July 1. When he drops her off at school, Karl tells Sarah that DeWhitt and Weston just tanked. Karl believes George told him to invest in a bad company on purpose. He wants to talk to George to get his money back. Karl nearly pushes her in front of a truck, but George manages to save her. George tells him he could’ve killed her. After Karl says he put all of his money into that company, George calls it a dumb thing to do.

Wes tells the team that Rebrov’s team is renting an apartment in the fifth arrondissement. After monitoring their movement, they’ve identified up to five men and women entering and exiting at various times of the day. One of these people knows where Big Boy is so they’re going to go and get them. Wes orders them to get suited up since they’re going to Paris. George tells her he isn’t a field agent, but Wes has otherwise. She tells him to go get his stuff. While the Dane and George wait in a camper, the others prepare to storm the building. The stream cuts out as Wes begins complaining. When the stream comes back, the group is ambushed and killed. Archie sees someone moving downstairs so she follows them to the basement.

She is killed as George comes out of the camper. When the killer bursts through a window on a motorbike, Dane floors it and George jumps back into the camper. As they chase Rebrov, they’re warned that he might have the detonator. The Dane tells George to get the gun from the glove compartment and shoot Rebrov. George tries shooting at him but misses. Once Rebrov crashes and gets off the bike, Dane and George get out with guns. Dane is immediately shot and killed. George continues looking at him until a bullet flies by. More police arrive at Wes says he is going to detonate the bomb. After he detonates the bombs, George returns to the most recent July 1. Archie tells and complains about getting shot. She also says the Dane said George handled himself well.

They’re sending people to the Paris address to follow up on some leads. George says they would’ve stayed dead if they would’ve stopped Rebrov. She reminds him that Rebrov is one of them so he is aware of the time loops and will know they’re coming for him. As George walks Sarah to the school, he gets a message asking him to come to the office because they’re tracking down Rebrov. Archie tells him that the French police picked up some of his guys who gave them Rebrov’s location. Since George is on the phone, he isn’t there to stop Sarah from getting hit by the truck.

 

The Lazarus Project Review

The first episode of The Lazarus Project had some high points although its many flaws stand out like a sore thumb. Aspects of the action scenes were fun with the motorcycle chase even though it is easy to question the realism of these scenes. The idea of time traveling to save the human race from extinction is certainly interesting enough to carry the series. If executed well, The Lazarus Project could likely keep the viewer on the edge of their seat from start to finish.

While the first episode was simple, I could see the time jumping becoming very confusing with subsequent episodes. The writers will have to walk a fine line to maintain the entertainment value and minimize any confusion. The bigger problems at the moment are the dialogue and characters. The dialogue is a bit too elementary and the sprinkled in swear words devalued the image of the “secret agents”.

Most of the characters are shallow while others are unlikable. The decision to create strife between George and Karl was cliché and unnecessary. If George’s actions in the first episode set the precedent, he may be difficult to root for. The acting could be better since some of the characters come off as arrogant and carefree in dangerous situations. George staring at the Dane’s body until he is nearly shot was not a good look.

Some scenes were too dark although other recent shows were a lot worse in this category, but this trend needs to be eliminated. It isn’t good when you can’t see the emotions on the characters’ faces or what they’re holding. Depending on the development of the story and characters, this could easily turn into a run roller coaster. Time will tell. The first episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of The Lazarus Project can be found on Reel Mockery here. Want to support our work? Find out how here.