Undercovers 1x04 'Jailbreak'

I liked this show last week... what happened?

What's It About?

Steven and Samantha travel to Ireland and then England in their endeaver to find a very important CIA hard drive, which has gone missing.

Review

It's all gone a bit Pete Tong! (again). I genuinely enjoyed this show last week, it picked up the spy pace and injected some much needed life into the characters and their relationships. This week that's all been taken away again and replaced by another totally self contained story which really doesn't feel like it needs a full episode to be resolved.

One positive to note here: this episode neither begins nor ends with The Blooms in bed. That's a big tick because the way that previous episodes have been bookended has really grated on me, this week that has been drastically improved.

Now to the negatives: why does there have to be a character trait of the week on this show? Two weeks ago Steven was a technophobe; last week he was a technophile and this week he's a human lie detector. Let the guy be a real human being, he might be a spy but that doesn't automatically mean that he happens to have a character trait which is useful to the story of the week.

This doesn't help to make him believable to the audience and in a hyper reality setting there's not a lot of room for character flaws which help point out to you that this is a contrived narrative in a television show.

The writers don't seem to have the same problem with Samantha and as such she is a far more human character and the far more interesting lead in this show.

As always Leo manages to turn up from absolutely nowhere and four weeks on this really starting to bug me, apparently it's bugging Samantha as well as she actually pointed it out. If it isn't going to develop in to a point of the story then either stop doing it or... well... stop doing it! Having a character point it out makes a mockery of the it and just adds to the disconnection from audience to narrative.

There is some interesting dialogue between Leo and Samantha in this episode which alludes to further backstory which could interfere in the Bloom marriage, for a while I believed there was going to be a mystery added to the show which might drag on until such time as characters could not go on without revealing the truth. But by the end of the episode the secret has been displaced without ever being spoken in a sign of true love and strength of marriage.

Frustrating although it is I guess this does help to round out the marriage and show the belief that Steven and Samantha have in each other. Oh well, mystery unsolved... for now.

I want so much not to have to bitch about this show, particularly after the hints of potential brilliance from last week but we really have taken 5 steps back and its frustrating to see the problems this show is having eek themselves out on screen. Plus the theme tune... oh the theme tune!

There is some secondary character development this week and also some development towards some form of overall arc to the series, but I fear that judging by the dwindling ratings there won't be enough time for this to unfold the way it has been planned out.

There is some serious danger hanging over this show but I am still hoping that it can be turned around and have a chance at continuing the way it should but if the trouble I had even finding the below one-liner to describe next week is anything to go by then NBC is on the hunt for a midseason replacement as we speak. 

Next Week...

What should be an easy mission for Steven and Samantha becomes more complicated by the minute.

Overall

Story    2.5

Character    2.5

Spyness    3.0

Overall    3.0

Undercovers 1x03 'Devices'

Finally the spark arrives for Mr and Mrs Bloom...

What's it about?

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

Review

After two weeks of looking for a voice and a pace (and a few other things too) finally 'Undercovers' has taken its first steps towards being on the path to potential greatness... okay so we're not there yet but at long bloody last we've got an episode which I enjoyed watching and could quite happily go back and watch again!

'Devices' takes the show in a far more successfully spy-tastic direction which echoes spy series gone by and shows the potential of what's to come. Throw your copy of 'Mr & Mrs Smith' out the window and unpack the 'Alias' DVDs because we've got the foundations for a much more exciting show.

The writing in this episode is a lot more sharp although (yes it's time for a grumble) there is a complete 180 degree shift on last week when Steven was the most technically un-savvy spy in the game. This week he's a gadet-o-holic and knows his stuff, but fair play to the writers because it worked and it helped make these characters far more believable in their dual lives.

The relationship between Steven and Samantha is finding some real solid ground to work with, all promotional materials which alluded to the flawed marriage which is miraculously healed by rejoining the spy game missed out on the fact that these two work well together and care for each other and that this can provide some compelling TV.

Instead of focussing on separating the two 'Devices' asks them to play off each others strengths and learn more of what it is to work as a team, this in turn allows the writers to explore the concern that a character can have for a loved one when they are placed in danger. It's nothing new, it's just the human experience, but to see if properly acted out in this show brings much more heart and much more depth to the action.

Credit where credit is due: both 

• Gugu Mbatha-Raw and 

• Boris Kodjoe have adjusted to their roles quickly and have found a camaraderie which works very well on screen.

• I still take issue with the way that supporting roles in this show are written although further steps are taken in this episode to flesh out some of these characters. There is still no need for nigh on slapstick comedy even in a show which doesn't take itself 100% seriously.

• I however can most definitely not yet take the opening theme seriously. Sorry.

The opening teaser of this episode certainly worked to visualise that this show can take steps towards a darker, more serious tone and for those watching this would most definitely have served to whet the appetite for things to come.

There was some very solid writing in this episode and I hope that this was not just a one off and that from here on in we can only expect far more development of this kind. There are some very interesting aspects to this universe which need the proper amount of time to be developed and explored. 

There are still some aspects of this episode which feel contrived, the miraculous appearance of Leo springs to mind. Is this guy always going to appear in the right place at the right time? But for all I know there could be an underlying plot twisty reason for this which could come in to play at a later date.

In this ratings obsessed spoilery world it is all to easy to forget that this show has only been on the air for three weeks. As an audience we seem to expect excellence from the outset and in some cases this is far too much to ask.

We should take a step back in time and remember that in days gone by shows were given time to develop and find their feet before they were cancelled and left to gather dust on a shelf. This is by no means a perfect show but it is also not worth giving up on just yet.

Don't give up hope Abrams fans, it's starting to get good!

Next week...

Steven and Samantha travel to Ireland and then England in their endeaver to find a very important CIA hard drive, which has gone missing.

Overall

Story    3.5

Character    3.0

Spyness    4.0

Overall    3.5

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

Undercovers Season 1 Episode 1 'Pilot'

What would happen if JJ Abrams wanted to make a show about The Bristows returning to the spy game... without Jennifer Garner or Michael Vartan

What's it about?

Outwardly, Steven Bloom and his wife, Samantha, are a typical married couple who own and operate a small catering company in Los Angeles -- with help from Samantha's easily frazzled, handful of a sister, Lizzy. Secretly, the duo were two of the best spies the CIA had ever known, until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and good friend Leo Nash goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss and agency liaison, Carlton Shaw, to locate and rescue Nash. With assistance from resourceful CIA field agent Bill Hoyt, whose professional admiration for Steven isn't hard to miss, the pair is thrust back into the world of espionage, disguises and hand-to-hand combat. Following leads that take them to cities spanning the globe, Steven and Samantha quickly realize that perhaps this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides exactly the kind of excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing.

What we saw

A husband and wife struggling to survive in the everyday world that they have resigned themselves to are offered a chance to spice up their lives which also just happens to renew their romance. It's a spy show that really doesn't want to end up relying on that tag line of 'sexpionage' too much.

Review

This is not 'Mr & Mrs Smith' but it's also not 'Alias' either. It's a well shot, well edited and well scripted pilot which has all the makings of a straight spy show but lacks the spark that has made other JJ Abrams shows so great.

It's hard not to make too many judgements about this show after only one episode, clearly JJ Abrams has used what he has learnt through his other ventures to blur several genres together here to try and make something truly unique in the world of the spy show. The problem? It's not very fun. 'Alias' was fun, we loved to watch Jenny Garner dress up in garishly coloured wigs and kick some serious bad guy ass and we got caught up (and confused) in the mythology behind the show which then gave birth to the perhaps overly complicated mythology of 'Lost' just as the teen drama notion had grown from 'Felicity' into 'Alias'.

'Undercovers' has the zippy, electronic theme tune and the well executed international backdrops to mask the real locations used for shooting but it lacks the high-tech gadgetry, the supporting characters and... well... The Alliance. It's really hard to objectively review this show without thinking about all the things I miss from 'Alias' as this show feels like it should be what happened if Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughan came out of retirement.

There are many plus points to this show, the two leads fully commit to their roles from start to finish and it's really great to see a show with non-white leads where race is not only a non-issue but also not even mentioned. The lack of a Rambaldi type character has removed the issue of following the story from week-to-week which I am sure was a prerequisite from the network to avoid the inevitable complaints from those who found it hard to keep up.

The cinematography here is solid, especially considering the lower budget appearance in some of the early scenes. In particular the teaser section of the show felt very poorly executed compared to the rescue which takes place at the end. 

In comparison the soundtrack (once again reminding me of 'Alias') compliments the on screen action perfectly. In fact it is hard to fault anything about the show in the same way that's it's hard to point out why it didn't have me on the edge or my seat desperate to find out what happens next.

This is going to be the kind of show which takes several weeks to find its footing but hopefully in that time it doesn't alienate so much of it's original audience that it doesn't get the chance to become the show which we all know that JJ Abrams is capable of.

Don't give up hope yet!

Next week...

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.

Overall

Story    3.0

Character    3.5

Spyness    3.0

Overall    3.0