To me, this movie is perfection.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

An anthology series, suggested by the 2 "Heaven Can Wait-Mr. Jordan"" movies and (I believe) an obscure circa 1950's paperback novel titled "Timeliner". In that novel, there is also a scientific accident that traps a man into always going forward into someone else's body. However, in that book, he takes the life of that person and then moves on when finished. An unintentional mental-physical vampire. He also finds that it is a known phenomena and others exist as well. This TV version is far more benign. He rights wrongs and fixes history, much like the hero in the TV series "Early Edition". The "temporarily" misplaced person waits in a holding area, and returns to their own body after Sam Becket leaps back out. In one of my favorite leaps, he saves an elderly man from falling from a 2nd story window. Also, in the same episode., he meets a teen-aged "Stephen King" and unwittingly serves as the inspiration for several of King's later classic novels. All this while confronting The Devil and witchcraft in a hallucination or daydream. The leaps in later seasons include Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, a real vampire, ghosts, witches, clairvoyants, a real UFO "passenger" , and a visit from his guardian angel in "It's a Wonderful Leap". The last episode "Mirror Image" is also explained in the IMDb article. In another noteworthy episode, he "leaps" into Lee Harvey Oswald to prevent Jacqueline's murder. Generally fun-to-watch and intriguing. I enjoy it on cable, as 97 episodes are just too many to own or view!. (In 2017, the creator stated that he had written a sequel which could be produced in the future, of course!)

Quantum Leap is like nothing you've ever seen on TV. It redefines the meanings of time travel and science fiction at the same time. Sam Beckett, through a scientific project, has his spirit or soul entering someone else's body in the past with means to "put right what once went wrong" of all things surrounding the body he enters .I remember caught glimpses of Quantum Leap in TV a few times at first, but I didn't pay much attention, as I was just thinking, "What kind of show is this? It has different settings in every episode." I just guessed it was like Alfred Hitchcock presents or Twilight Zones, which were not my favorites, until a friend of mine told me about the show and I finally watched (It was a Season 2 episode "Blind Faith"). And boy, was I stunned, and became an instant keen fan. I'd never wanted to miss any single episode ever since.The most extraordinary thing about Quantum Leap is, since Sam leaps into various people with various backgrounds, the setting has virtually endless possibilities. As a Sci-Fi show, it does not try to bother us with much technical jargon or scientific terms that often hinder its viewers from fully enjoying the story. I imagine that even the show can run into thousands of episodes without running out of ideas. Basically it is a sci-fi melodrama kind of shows, but at times it could change into comedy (A Tale of Two Sweeties), war (The Leap Home part 2), thriller (Dreams), and even horror (The Boogieman). I couldn't help but stuck in front of the TV as the show played, as well as curious about whom he would leap into next. I even bought the whole DVD sets containing the whole seasons, while my favorites, among others, are 'Blind Faith', 'What Price Gloria?', 'The Great Spontini', 'Temptation Eyes', 'A Tale of Two Sweeties', and 'Pool Hall Blues'.Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell are just flawless - it is like they were born to be Sam Beckett and Al Calavicci. I couldn't think of other actors that could fit into their characters - Scott is Sam, Sam is Scott, Dean is Al, and Al is Dean, they are inseparable.Too bad, that gem was killed after only 5 seasons, with unsatisfactory conclusions. 'Sam NEVER leaps home'? How's that? Is it fair, for he sacrifices to save someone else he didn't know (at some points that even threatens his life), and he couldn't help himself? It just can't do the justice.OK, I know it's overkill, but I feel somehow sad that Sam is trapped somewhere and sometime out there. Whether he is still fighting to put right what once went wrong, or even thrown in the abyss, we could never tell. So, please, does not anybody out there in Hollywood hear him? Save him, give him a chance to be home, and give audiences more times to venture into the brightest light of fantasy TV has ever seen.

I give it a 5 for this reason: Betrayal.I loved the show until i figured out it was someone's descent into sci-fi sanctimony. I confess that I had always wondered just how history "went wrong" and I felt ashamed that it took me so long to get it. Sam did not correct what "somehow" went amiss in history - he corrected his messing it up in the first place. When he leapt back he immediately cause the problems recorded in Ziggy's memory banks which were in reality just a record of all of Sam's dalliances in the past. Later came the bastard notion of what caused it all, "the evil leaper" but what in reality was just Sam's innate god complex at work. Sam's leaps caused all of the problems which he went to solve and thus fueled his ego's assumed role of savior. Poor Sam. Lucky us that he fixed his messes. And the only thing which saved the show for me was the last episode which further propelled Sam into delusional god-hood. The portion where he fixed his worst mistake: Beth and Al - THAT made it all worthwhile. The part about the leaps getting harder and Sam choking up should have made me throw a tomato at the TV but since he restored the lives of Al and Beth, my 20" Bell+Howell color TV which I inherited from my Grandmother (rest her soul) was spared the assault. I see the show as the ultimate case of Munchhausen's Syndrome. Just call me House.

I used to love "Quantum Leap." Scott Bakula was perfect as the earnest Sam, and Dean Stockwell was great as the crusty Al: their chemistry was made in heaven. The show, of course, is about a scientist who gets lost in time, leaping into the body of various people and striving "to put right what once went wrong." The weekly cliff-hangers were possibly the most brilliant in the history of television. I remember watching the show every Friday night and not being able to wait for the following week's show to see how Sam was going to possibly get out of another impossible scenario.As great as Quantum Leap was, the show hasn't aged well for me. Watching the episodes today I am struck by how PC the show is... just as political correctness was taking over American culture back then it is obvious- in retrospect- that the writers of the show were also in the grips of this sensitive liberal movement and allowed it to affect their work. Sam is always urging a woman to leave an oppressive man, always liberating a town with rock 'n roll, always protesting the war. In one episode he leaps into the body of a black man in 1955... his mission is to prevent an elderly white woman from dying, but that doesn't stop him from trying to single-handedly end racism in America even though he knows by the history books that segregation won't end for another decade... and that racism has yet to run its course TO THIS DAY. This was the kind of thing that seemed sweet back in 89... today it just seems naive.Some of the show is just as great as it was back then... the episode where Sam meets Al's wife is beautiful, the first encounter with the Evil Leaper is great... and the episode where Sam leaps back to his boyhood home is acted so well you will feel the nostalgia for this childhood that isn't even yours. "The Leap Home" also contains my favorite moment in the series: Sam, as himself in 1969, convincing his little sister that the Beatles are going to break up by playing her a song that has not yet been written: John Lennon's "Imagine." She knows her brother can't possibly see the future but the camera holds on her face as she listens to the tune... and the fact that she cannot deny what she is hearing causes her to shake her head and burst into tears... heartbreaking.To watch the show now is to go from leaps that are corny, sometimes maddening, to those that are brilliant or just fun... but even the bad ones are anchored by the magic of Bakula & Stockwell. As a kid I would have given the show an A+... but today I'd have to give it a B. Maybe I have gotten jaded... maybe times have just changed.