Gary has had a fairly good life so far. He has a high paying job as a stock broker, a good looking fiancé and, in general, a nice day-to-day life. But in a very short time, he gets thrown out of his house and loses his job. So imagine his surprise when a newspaper starts being delivered to his hotel room. But instead of being the normal daily edition of the Chicago Sun-Times, it is dated tomorrow, and gets delivered by an orange cat.
Gary then spends his daily life by this paper, reading it in the morning and seeing what wrongs will be committed that day and trying his darndest to right them. He is joined on his adventures by his two best friends (and former co-workers), Chuck (Fisher Stevens) and Marissa (Shanesia Davis-Williams). These two characters tend to act as his shoulder angel and devil, since Chuck is always trying to find ways to use the paper to rake in lots of money via sports and lottery gambling, while Marissa acts as the conscience of the group, constantly stating that the paper is supposed to be used to help others.
The series has a few reoccurring secondary characters as well, like Detective Crumb (Rob Dean) who is suspicious of Gary's ability to always be around the action, but eventually accepts his help. Gary also has a brief romance with a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times, but as they get closer, the knowledge of the paper's existence causes a rift between the two.
Most episodes are fairly predictable, but there are enough unique ones that are really clever and keep you thinking. Early in the season, "Choice" has Gary trying to decide between keeping a little girl from being hit by a car and stopping a jet from crashing just after takeoff. Gary feels that he can do more good with the jet, but when he sees the girl while heading to the airport, he has to help her. While I won't ruin the ending to this episode, I will say this is a prime example of how the show's excellent writing comes through and the "higher plan" that Gary is supposed to follow is made evident.
Other episodes include the two-parter, "The Wall", where Gary tries to learn about the paper's previous subscriber and gets caught up in a presidential assignation attempt. Gary will also team up with a series of unusual characters like a psychic, his Dad (played by William Devane), Santa Clause and a former police officer who suffered a mental breakdown and believes he is the famed Old West lawman Bat Masterson.
I especially enjoyed the episode that put Gary in the hospital to help a girl with a heart transplant. Granted, the main reason I like this episode is because Gary's doctor is played by Robert Picardo (who played The Doctor on Star Trek Voyager).
Early Edition was a pretty good "make right what once was wrong" type of show. I enjoyed it during its initial run of four seasons, but never got the chance to see how it all started. For existing fans of the series, The First Season is a good purchase. All of the episodes are here, and the actors really get a feel for their characters early on. If you haven't seen the series before, but you like this type of setup, then check it out anyway.
