General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Lifeline

Lifeline is an American science-fiction thriller web series about a life insurance company whose agents travel 33 days into the future to prevent the accidental deaths of its clients. It premiered on October 11, 2017 on YouTube Red, YouTube's subscription service, and ran for one season of eight episodes of roughly 25 minutes each.¹^•² The series was created and written by Ben Freiburger and Grant Wheeler and executive produced by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Brian Gewirtz, and Hiram Garcia for Seven Bucks Digital Studios, the digital arm of Seven Bucks Productions, together with Studio71.¹

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	October 11, 2017, on YouTube Red, on the Corridor Digital channel¹
Format	One season, 8 episodes, about 25 minutes each; status ended²^•³
Premise	A life insurance company sends agents forward 33 days in time to prevent the accidental deaths of its clients⁴
Creators	Ben Freiburger and Grant Wheeler; executive producers include Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia¹
Main cast	Zach Gilford (Conner Hooks), Sydney Park (Norah Hazelton), Amanda Crew (Haley Hooks), Usman Ally (Nathan)⁵
Ratings	IMDb 6.1/10 from 927 users; TV-MA; Common Sense Media 3/5, recommended for age 14+⁶^•⁵
Literary source	Very loosely based on the Robert Heinlein short story Life-Line⁷

Spoilers

Premise and time-travel rules

The series is set in the not-too-distant future and centers on Lifeline, a little-known life insurance company whose specially trained agents jump forward in time to prevent the deaths of its clients.¹ Nathan (Usman Ally), the company's head, invented an implant that allows Lifeline to monitor a person's vital signs 33 days in the future; when the system detects that a client will be killed, it sends an agent forward to the exact moment and location of the death, where the agent has only moments to avert fate.⁵

Two rules give the show its distinctive structure. Agents normally jump forward in time, but backward travel is possible; agents making frequent month-plus jumps miss ordinary life while the world ages around them.⁵ Reviewers noted that this one-way constraint distinguishes the series from other time-travel fiction such as Looper and Quantum Leap, since agents arrive in the future knowing nothing about what has happened in the world during each nearly five-week span.⁸

Plot

The company's best agent, Conner Hooks (Zach Gilford), has never missed a save, until he takes on the most personal case of his life. After a rescue attempt fails and sixteen-year-old Norah (Sydney Park) loses her parents while under his supervision, Conner vows to keep her safe, even if doing so risks both his job at Lifeline and his own life.¹ Conner and his wife Haley (Amanda Crew) both work as agents for the company, and Conner gradually discovers that Lifeline's plans go far beyond protecting its clients.⁵ In the final episode, "Conner Goes Red" (November 8, 2017), Conner decides to live forward by jumping back to save Norah, even if it destroys any chance of saving Haley.²

Production and release

YouTube announced the series in October 2016 at the MIPCOM trade show under the tentative title Lifeline, greenlit for 8 episodes as Dwayne Johnson's sci-fi action project for YouTube Red.⁹^•¹⁰ It was produced in conjunction with Seven Bucks Studios, Studio71, and Corridor Digital, and released on the Corridor Digital YouTube channel; the official trailer published on October 5, 2017 drew over 2.5 million views.¹¹ Episodes were directed by Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski, with writing credited to Benjamin Azure (Ben Freiburger) and Grant Wheeler on all 8 episodes.¹²

At launch, YouTube Red was available in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and Korea.¹ The series is very loosely based on the Robert Heinlein short story Life-Line.⁷

Reception

Common Sense Media's reviewer Joyce Slaton gave the series 3 out of 5 stars, rated it appropriate for ages 14 and up, and described it as smart and thoughtful with compelling ideas about time travel, while noting its clearly lower budget, few actors, and few sets, with most action in living rooms and offices; the review also flagged violent deaths and rough language.⁵ CinemaBlend compared it to a Black Mirror episode from the 1990s and argued that its predominant use of forward time travel gave the show an edge in its use of the concept.⁸ A more negative review in The Medium is Not Enough found the premise nonsensical and the production values cheap, though it praised Amanda Crew's performance.⁷ On IMDb the series holds a 6.1/10 rating from 927 users.⁶

The series ended after its single season, and TVmaze lists its status as ended.²

Other works of the same name

The title Lifeline has been used for several unrelated screen works. A 2025 horror thriller directed by Feras Alfuqaha, from a script by Brady Morell and Brian Price and released by Dark Sky Films, follows a psychologist (Josh Stewart) volunteering at a crisis line on New Year's Eve who receives a call from a young man in distress whose struggles resemble his own.¹³ A Spanish drama series titled Lifeline (original title Pulsaciones) aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom under the Walter Presents label.¹⁴ A separate Israeli documentary series, Lifeline, made with the ERAN emotional first aid association, combines real helpline volunteers with actors improvising from real cases.¹⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Genre web series: horror, thriller, science fiction, and mystery

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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