Undercovers 1x02 'Instructions'

Back with episode two we've got a little more spy and a little less cringe but is this show shaping up to be a JJ Abrams classic?

What's it about?

When a private security detail in Pakistan murders the scientists they're paid to protect and kidnaps the lead scientist, CIA handler Shaw sends married spies Steven and Samantha to the rescue. With agents Hoyt and Leo as back up, our team travels to the beaches of Turks & Caicos, the slums of Caracas, and the center of Stockholm as they race to prevent the kidnappers from forcing the scientist to perform her expertise-building a miniature bomb for their impending attack. Amid this security threat, the most danger may come when Leo meets Samantha's sister Lizzy.

What we saw

A lot less of the struggling marriage and a lot more of the spy action which viewers were left craving for in the pilot episode. Other than that? Another generic spy story.

Review

It's JJ Abrams so there was no way I wasn't coming back for episode 2 but in the week where my Blu-Ray box set of 'Fringe' season 2 arrived I'm still underwhelmed by the lack of spark in 'Undercovers' and I think it was best described in a line on another blog: 'where is the JJ Abrams in this show?' And it's true, it's hard to see the JJ here.

With the pilot over this episode dispenses with a lot of life outside of the spy game and decides to concentrate more on the lifestyle that the Bloom's are falling back in to. There are still bits and pieces of the outside life but here they mainly focus on Steven's lack of ability to read instructions (hence the episode title) than on the troubled marriage which had proved one of the more interesting points last week.

The story here is solid, if a little overdone, and does improve the overall feel of the show compared to last week which is seconded by better effects and location. Where last week I felt like I was watching people running around on a studio rooftop this week I could almost have believed a lot of the desert and West Indian locations. One another happy note: one of my complaints last week was a lack of high-tech gadgetry and that was rectified this week albeit with supposedly comedic consequences which tie in to the title of the episode.

The most obvious flaw in this show is still the supporting characters, little is made of Samantha's sister who clearly rounds out the everyday world although there is some development of her role within the catering company this week. But it's the secondary characters in the spy world who really let this show down.

The characters of Bill and Leo spend too much time as the focus of the comedy here rather than shoring up action and to me this throws off the balance of the show. Clearly this is not meant to be an overtly deep and dark drama but the balance of the spy drama and comedy aspects still just isn't quite working for me. Finding the balance between these elements would help define the direction of the show and possibly stop the evident slippage in ratings which has occurred in the space of only two weeks.

Thankfully there is no mention of the word 'sexpionage' this week because I would genuinely have had to put the show off if it became apparent that this term was the crux of the show and it was nice to further see a lack of importance placed on the race of the two leads.

There are still more positives to this show than there are negatives but without that spark it's going to be hard to keep coming back week-by-week without a story thread to keep me interested and as you can see by the very short description of next week there doesn't seem to be anything life changing coming up.

Next week...

With the identities of every CIA agent at stake, Steven, Samantha, Leo and Hoyt are in a race against time.

Overall

Story    3.5

Character    3.0

Spyness    3.5

Overall    3.0