I've always had a tough time taking time-travel movies and series seriously, as science has firmly established that actual time travel is one of the most far-fetched theories around. Time travel is probably impossible, and if it could EVER happen, we'd probably be pretty aware of it by now since a lot of people would be visiting the past already and the entire world would be upended. Can you imagine if someone went back in time and killed Hitler when he was in his 20s and just a nobody? You can bet that if time travel was possible in the future, say in 100 or 200 years, someone would've already gone back and killed Hitler. Multiply that scenario by several million and you can see that time travel is the LAST thing we would ever want to happen.
Even so, since "Back to the Future" some 40 years ago, we've all been enamored with time-travel movies, and "The 7 Lives of Lea" managed to snare me in for the full run.
The series is terrific and an easy watch, and I never felt it was too long or moved too slowly. Raïka Hazanavicius is our protagonist, Léa, and helps get us on her side with an accomplished performance. Khalil Ben Gharbia, as Ismaël, also delivers a compelling character and we're rooting for him to survive all the way. The rest of the cast provides effective support for a fairly complex story that has a different twist on the time-travel theme.
I share some critics' viewpoint that some of the characters -- including some that we're supposed to root for -- weren't exactly nice people and their selfishness made it a little tougher to like them.
And a couple reviewers mentioned the butterfly effect, but they don't have a full grasp of the concept. The butterfly effect, as it applies to time-travel movies, essentially means that a small change in the past can be the cause of much larger consequences. In "The 7 Lives of Lea," the volume of changes initiated by Léa 30 years in the past would have enormous effects that would change hundreds of people's lives, if not thousands. (And killing Hitler in his 20s would've affected hundreds of millions of people.)
It's part of why I have a tough time with time-travel films and series. But like so much of the entertainment we consume, I just suspend disbelief and buy into the show. And with my beliefs judiciously set aside, I found "The 7 Lives of Lea" thoroughly entertaining and look forward to the second season, which is apparently going to happen this year (2024).