To understand the TV series Treadstone’s premise, you need to know a bit more about where the Treadstone idea orginated.

Robert Ludlum introduced the world to Jason Bourne through his novels, starting with The Bourne Identity in 1980. Two more sequels followed in 1986 and 1990, and after Ludlum’s death, Eric Lustbader added to the series with another DOZEN stories from 2004 to 2019. The initial book focused on Bourne as an undercover agent trying to capture the terrorist Carlos the Jackal by posing as a rival but fictitious assassin named Cain. Unfortunately, Bourne almost gets killed, develops amnesia, and can’t complete his mission, and while he is recuperating, the host agency running his operation thinks he’s turned traitor. That organization is called Treadstone.

When the new movies came out in 2002 with Jason Bourne played by Matt Damon, they altered the plot to create a series of Treadstone agents who volunteered to become super agents with advanced training, drugs, and psycho treatments aka brainwashing. Bourne still had amnesia in the movie, but it is more about him being an assassin FOR the government for black operations and he had a crisis of conscience just before he got injured. Treadstone still distrusts him, so they send other Treadstone agents against Bourne, and he has to hurt the organization hard to get them to leave him alone. Two more movies followed where first he thinks Treadstone is after him again, and another where a journalist is investigating Treadstone and a new thread called Blackbriar. The constant spectra of “Treadstone living on” vs. “Treadstone being shut down” continues in all the movies.

In 2012, they made a Bourne movie — but without Jason Bourne. The film was called The Bourne Legacy and added a new thread of agents called Operation Outcome that used meds to stimulate cognitive and physical abilities. Bourne exposed Treadstone more widely in movie #3, and the storyline is woven into the background of Legacy…Treadstone is dead, Blackbriar is exposed, and people decide to covertly shut down Outcome too. With extreme prejudice. A fifth movie just called Jason Bourne had Bourne again, but this time helping one of his original handlers who is in trouble as a potential whistleblower. Over the course of the film, Bourne learns more about the origins of the original Treadstone and how it worked.

Which brings us to 2019 and a new show called Treadstone. It’s hard to know the premise exactly, as certain storylines don’t quite match up. Basically, instead of Treadstone being the training of hard-core James Bond-level agents who can kill without hesitation, there is a Russian program called Cicada. These are sleeper agents who have no memory of their original lives or who they are until they are woken up to do a mission. A North Korean general knows that someone has an old Russian nuke aimed at the U.S. and is trying to get the launch codes, so he alerts the CIA to prevent an apocalypse, even while knowing it will likely sign his death warrant. 

 But here is where it gets weird in a long episode introducing a lot of disparate parts:

• An ex-journalist is the one the DPRK general alerts, knowing she’ll be monitored by the CIA, and alerting the CIA that there’s something Treadstone-like called Cicadas who are being woken up, in addition to the problem of the nuke. In addition to the journalist, there’s her new handler, plus two senior officers within the CIA who are involved;
• It’s flashback time to 1973, where an American agent somehow infiltrated the Cicada program, and escapes. Two flashbacks show what happened and who one of them is in the present time, but not the American agent;
• In the present, a North Korean music teacher is activated or rather woken up as a Cicada agent in order to kill the DPRK general. Except she doesn’t know who she really is, or how she knows how to do stuff, or anything. She was activated blindly and given her assignment…the Cicada program is big on compliance over freedom of thought; and,
• A fourth stream of people is an average Joe working on an oil rig and taking special yellow pills that keep on an even keel (aka like the meds from Outcome). Except he gets laid off, doesn’t take his meds, and when a Russian jerk starts a bar fight, the leatherneck breaks into Jason Bourne abilities and kicks the crap out of five guys. A kindly face helps clean him up after the fight, and basically resets him back into being a normal guy again, kind of like a form of Treadstone with Outcome meds and Blackbriar awakenings and compliance.

Now if you don’t know all that context before you get to the TV show, all you’ll see is that there are sleeper agents doing missions on both sides of the old Cold War, and the bad guys are trying to get control of a nuke. Bourne and the rest of the stuff is great if you know it, but they don’t tell you hardly ANY of it. In fact, all they basically say is that they thought they shut down Treadstone previously, and it turned out to be bigger than they originally expected.

So who is relevant in the story? Hard to tell. Jeremy Irvine plays the original American agent, Bentley. He’s okay in the episode, but mostly what he does is fight and escape. Tracy Ifeachor (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) plays the ex-journalist, and while she seems good, she has very little screentime to get to know her. Her handler is played by Omar Metwally but he has even less screen time. Gabrielle Scharnitzky plays the older version of a Russian agent, while Emilia Schule plays the younger version. The younger version has presence, the older version is boring.

But the show will live or die by the two sleeper agents. For the Communists, it is a woman named SoYun played by Hyo-Joo Han. She actually does alright, and it is fun to see her transform from simple music teacher and mother/wife into Jane Bourne. For the Americans, it is Brian J Smith playing sleeping Doug McKenna. I liked Smith on Stargate Universe, and he is decent here, although a bit inconsistent since he doesn’t know what’s happening to him.

And just to round things out, as we can’t have Treadstone without figures back at Langley, we have Michelle Forbes as the potential good cop (hard to believe she was Ro Laren on ST:TNG all the way back in ’91-94 and I wouldn’t have recognized her if I hadn’t seen her name in the credits) and Michael Gaston (a really great cynical white guy, although I liked him better as a Red John suspect in the Mentalist).

So where does that leave me? Certainly it is not well-paced for plotting and characters. If you didn’t know any background, you’d be thoroughly confused all the way through the episode. I DID know and I was still confused. Yet, I was already “all in” as soon as it was announced. I predicted cancellation as it seemed like it was going to be more about a one-man army, which lots of shows try every year and they all fail. However, with the addition of other competing agents, I’m going to reverse my prediction and say that USA might renew it.

Either way, I’ll be watching.

All I noted for The Village was “community building in Brooklyn” (the building is called The Village) and I predicted CANCELLATION. I watched the first episode, and the prediction stands. Which is a bit unfortunate as I think there might be some interesting stories in there. Just none with enough “hook” to be gritty. A collection of soft short stories, and not enough meat. This is the Village, these are their stories.

Story 1 involves a mother and daughter, Sarah and Katie. Sarah is a single mother, working hard as a nurse, and summarizes her life basically as “hard” and “happy” being not mutually exclusive. She is played by Michaela McManus, and I like her in just about everything I’ve seen her in…SEAL Team (I only saw her in Ep1), Aquarius (also Ep1 only), Awake (a short 13 episodes), and L&O: SVU (22 Eps although I didn’t watch the whole run). I love her here. She’s the hot girl next door with a few miles on her that everyone is destined to fall for in almost every show. Her daughter is played by Grace Van Dien, and while a stretch (23 year old playing mid-teen), she does a decent job in the pilot. Of course, no relationship would be complete without her being pregnant plus a teenage activist.

Story 2 involves an immigrant from Iran with a 7-year-old son. She’s illegal, and arrested by ICE for deportation in the pilot, putting in jeopardy what to do about her son. Moran Atias plays Ava, and only has one or two scenes, but does alright. Her son is more a plot device than anything, but Ethan Maher does okay. They’re helped by Jerod Haynes as Ben, a police officer who lives in the building. There’s a hint of greater ties to the woman and her kid, but it isn’t entirely clear.

Story 3 is the old guy story. His name is Enzo, and he’s living in a nursing home where Sarah works. His lifelong friend just passed away, and he wants to leave. He convinces his only relative to let him live with him in the building, even though the kid is in law school, has a girlfriend, and only a 1BR apartment. Dominic Chianese plays Enzo, and he’s a long way from playing Junior on The Sopranos. I like him here better. 🙂 Daren Kagasoff plays Gabe, and he also gets roped into helping Ava with her deportation hearing. See how this works? Everyone in the building gets the “Village experience”. Everyone helping everyone, cuz, well, it takes a village. He is solid in every scene, it just isn’t clear what his role or character are going to be.

Story 4 is about the owners of the building, Frankie Faison as Ron and Lorraine Toussaint as Patricia/Trish. Ron’s character is a little too positive to be realistic…he’s like a kindly old Santa Claus, but he also seems a bit over familiar with everyone. Creepy, to be honest. Toussaint isn’t my favorite actress…she was okay on Into the Badlands; I almost hated her as Mama Rosewood on Rosewood; she was tolerable on Forever; and I would have been fine without her on Friday Night Lights or Saving Grace. Similarly for Crossing Jordan. Not surprisingly, I don’t like her here. Nor do I like her storyline, and for the same reason. She has cancer, hasn’t told anyone, and when she’s trying to act by herself, she has a very limited range. When she does the girl-buddy thing, I can tolerate her; beyond that, I want to skip every scene she’s in.

Story 5 would be make or break for me. Warren Christie plays injured soldier Nick “just Nick” Porter. An IED took out part of his leg, snipers killed his team members, a dog saved his life. He’s home, so to speak, and everyone he meets thanks him for his service, which is freaking him out. I don’t recognize him although he’s been in a few shows that I’ve watched, always as a guest star though and I guess not a big one. He’s pretty damn solid — happy scenes, tortured soul, freaking out because a light popped behind him, etc. Super-excited to get his companion dog back. I’m not sure how I feel about the very last scene — and it’s a spoiler. He’s Katie’s dad, and she doesn’t know. I like the premise of the connection to be forged. But it’s a bit trite, not to mention the whole drama of “they didn’t tell her” for the future.

Unfortunately, I just don’t care about stories 2, 3 and 4. Not really. 1 and 5 have some potential. The weird part is that I don’t think I would stick around for Ep 2 to see what happened, but the decision is already made for me…the series didn’t make it to Season 2 as of this week, so not much point in watching now.

Ever watch a show and think, “Man, they are trying way too hard to say IT’S A SITCOM!”? If you haven’t, try watching Ep1 of Fam, and see what it is like when actors show they’re acting instead of inhabiting the characters. It’s a little better than an SNL skit, but not by a lot. I predicted CANCELLATION and I’m sticking with that.

The basic gist of the show is a yuppie-ish couple, mixed races (how diverse!), just got engaged and are ready to start planning their life together. Enter the bride’s younger sister who is 16, just dropped out of school, about to live with a drugdealing boyfriend. Dad is hopeless, so much so that the bride told her groom he was actually dead. Sis asks her younger sis to move in, let’s make this blended family work. There’s no actual plot anywhere in here, it is more like someone threw a bunch of buzzwords into a hat like “blended family”, ethnic diversity, clueless Dad, reformed sister, bad sibling, etc., and came up with a show that fit the demographic hopes of a marketing strategy gone wrong.

Nina Dobrev plays the older sister/bride, and while she spent 8 years on The Vampire Diaries, none of them seemed to prepare her to act in a sitcom. But bad acting from Degrassi might have doomed her. She’s cute, she has a fun haircut, and she delivers her saccharine sweet lines with gusto, but it’s 2019. A little grit wouldn’t hurt. Tone Bell plays her husband-to-be, and he is the nerdiest black character since Carlton on Fresh Prince. He constantly tries to be funny, but he only shines when he’s serious.

The supporting cast is just plain odd. Odessa Adlon plays the street-wise 16-year-old, beer-drinking, dry humping, half-sister, who seems more like an innocent 12 year old. The street would eat her up in a heartbeat. The parents of the groom are played by Sheryl Lee Ralph (easily recognizable, but hard to place — had to go all the way back to It’s A Living to figure it out) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (equally familiar, all the way back to Trapper John, M.D. to spot him though). But their scenes are all written as one straight line, one comedic commentary line, one straight line, one comedic commentary line, etc.

And finally Gary Cole plays the clueless father of the bride. First described as a narcissistic psycho, Cole plays him like a clueless lovable goof. WTF? Sure, he’s not a great dad, but a narcissistic psycho you cut out of your life? Hardly. And it pained me to hate the character. I like Cole in a lot of things — Suits, Chuck, and more importantly, as VP Bingo Bob on the West Wing. Yet he’ll always be Jack Killian of Midnight Caller to me. Sigh.

So it’s not great casting. It’s not great plotting. It’s not great writing. But even if some of that could be fixed, it is supposed to be a sitcom. You know, FUNNY. Not a single funny line that wasn’t tramped on, mashed or overridden through the whole episode. Not one laugh.

And that? You can’t forgive. Hard pass. “Fam” might be the new “family”, but only if “can” is the new “cancellation”.