They say that hindsight is 20/20. But what if you suddenly had 20/20 foresight? A young college student inherits a vintage optician’s lens kit from his eccentric great uncle and discovers that he can use the lenses to see into the past as well as the future. For him, hindsight and foresight are now 20/20 thus allowing him to solve mysteries from the past as well as alter the course of the future. 

SYNOPSIS:

Joel Cummings (mid 20s) travels to the East Coast with his parents to attend the funeral of his great uncle, Ernest Wilson, Ph.D. (late 70s), a renowned archeologist, who passed away from cancer. The wake is held at Dr. Wilson’s East Hampton estate and Joel, bored with the event, excuses himself from his parents and

explores the house, eventually ending up in Dr. Wilson’s study. While checking out the various artifacts displayed around the room that his great uncle collected over the years as an archeologist, Joel steps over to a large globe of the earth sitting on a wooden stand in a corner of the room and gives it a spin. Suddenly, a monocle falls out of the bottom of the globe and clinks onto the floor. Joel holds the monocle up to his eye, peers through it and scans the room. To his surprise, he sees his great uncle sitting at his desk writing a letter. Joel lowers the monocle from his eye and Dr. Wilson is no longer there. He returns the monocle to his eye and Dr. Wilson reappears, continuing to write the letter. Joel moves over and peers over Dr. Wilson’s shoulder at the letter. To Joel’s surprise, the letter is addressed to him!

Reading the letter, Joel learns that his great uncle discovered a large crystalline-like rock formation buried under the sand in the desert near Baghdad in Iraq on one of his expeditions many years earlier. Chipping a piece of the crystalline-like rock from the wall of the dig, Dr. Wilson discovered that if he peered through the glass-like chip he could see into the past. Then, when he turned the chip around, he could see into the future. However, Dr. Wilson’s expedition is cut short when a Middle Eastern military unit swarms down on the dig and escorts everyone away from the site and forces them to return to the U.S. However, Dr. Wilson manages to escape with a soccer-ball-sized piece of the mystical stone in his backpack and returns home to analyze it in his laboratory.

Continuing to read the letter, Joel learns that Dr. Wilson experimented with the stone and fashioned a set of lenses of various thicknesses and radiuses, similar to those used by optometrists in the old days to test people’s vision and to determine the strength of lenses needed to correct either their myopia (near-sightedness) or hyperopia (far-sightedness). Dr. Wilson’s lenses marked (+) allowed him to see into the future and the ones marked (-) allowed him to look into the past. And the thicker the lenses, the farther he could see into the future or into the past. Consequently, by using various combinations of lenses he could choose the exact date and time in either the future or past that he wished to see. And although his ability to see into the future or into the past was limited to his immediate surroundings and was void of sound, by traveling to various locations he was able to solve mysteries from the past as well as foretell of events in the future. While he couldn’t alter history (“hindsight is 20/20”), he found that his real power was his ability to alter the future through his choices and actions, based on his incredible foresight.

As Dr. Wilson continues to write his letter, Joel discovers that his great uncle has chosen him to be the heir of this incredible power and to carry on in his stead as the guardian and shaper of the future, ultimately saving the world from an apocalypse. The letter further tells Joel that he will find the lens kit in the trunk of a vintage muscle car stored in an old barn down by the lake on Dr. Wilson’s property, and that also in the trunk is a journal that will instruct him on the use of the lenses as well as serve as a travel log to guide him on a mission to save the world.

Dr. Wilson’s letter also instructs Joel to go to the local hospital and thank Naomi Phillips (early 20s), a nurse who took care of him until he passed away. Joel does so and he and Naomi discover a mutual attraction that evolves over the course of the series into a romantic relationship with high-stakes drama when Joel discovers that Naomi is the heir of Dr. Wilson’s vast, international, multi-trillion-dollar business holdings and is kidnapped by foreign powers and held for ransom.

But first, Dr. Wilson’s journal sends Joel on several training missions (baby steps) to learn how to use the lenses properly and discreetly, solving some mysteries from the past and averting some future disasters. Along the way we are introduced colorful characters and share in their drama as Joel uses his hindsight and foresight to help them—as well as himself—overcome their predicaments. The series is actually unlimited due to the fact that the lenses could be stolen or given to another protagonist who then embarks on their own journey. This is advantageous should a lead actor wish to leave the show. And the protagonist can be of any age, gender or ethnicity. I just chose a young college student for the pilot.

20/20