One of the things I like to do when I’m making my prediction is simply rely on the descriptions of the shows. I don’t care if the lead is someone famous or not, because that is sometimes a hindrance as much as a help. Executives may be swayed by it, but I am a lover of stories, not single actors, when predicting the likelihood of success. For FBI, the descriptions were pretty basic. Hey, look, a story about the FBI. And based on that little info, my reaction was that there was no hook. And if the best they could do was “something something FBI something something”, I predicted CANCELLED.

If I had dug deeper, I would have seen some of the cast’s pedigree. The lead actress is Missy Peregrym, of Rookie Blue fame. I thought she was fine as a rookie cop, but she has almost no presence to me. And she was Serious Missy for this first episode, with little range or anything to offer worth watching.

She’s partnered with Zeeko Zaki, who is, well, nobody. A few roles, nothing outstanding to co-anchor a show. But in the episode, he has serious presence. More than Missy, that’s for sure. Ebonee Noel plays a hot CSI-type technical analyst / field operator (hard to pin down her role), but not much for her to do.

But the bosses have presence. Jeremy Sisto plays the assistant SAC for the NYC office, and I really liked him as Lupo on Law and Order back in the day. His boss is played by Connie Nielsen in the pilot, and she too has a L&O:SVU background for at least a partial season. From the looks of IMDB though, it appears she might have been recast for episode 2, and replaced with Sela Ward (Sisters, CSI:NY). A good supporting cast, but not enough to draw me in and keep me watching.

So remember how I said above that it was “something something FBI something something”? Well, now I’ve watched the episode, and I still have NO IDEA what the show is about. Is it about the FBI field office in NYC? Is it going to be simple case of the week? Will they really be able to have HIGH INTENSITY CRISIS EVERY WEEK? I don’t know, because the show never bothers to tell me what the show is about.

Cancelled? Absolutely. The real question is, “What the hell was the pitch?”