Fantasy isn’t my favorite genre, but I’ll watch it if it’s good and doesn’t stray into horror. Sometimes I’ll go for the light stuff, like Buffy; other times I’m looking for Blade or Underworld. So when I saw A Discovery of Witches was about witches and vampires, and wasn’t aimed at the teen set, I thought I would give it a try. It is really solid.
The premise is that the main character, Dr. Diana Bishop, has returned to Oxford doing research on alchemy. But she’s also a witch whose parents were killed for being witches, so she has renounced her power. She refuses to use it, although it has been manifesting on its own of late. She goes to the library and asks for a specific volume of a series of texts, v.782, a book that has been missing from the collection for some time. Except this time, it appears and she reads it. As she opens it, it unlocks some ancient powers and even transfers some of the writing to her hand. But the mere touching of the book has alerted others that she has found it. Other witches and covens, for example. And a very persistent vampire who wants to read about how vampires were first created. Apparently, they’re having trouble siring new vampires, and Professor Clairmont thinks the text will tell him how to “fix things”. The other coven thinks it will tell them how to kill all vamps.
Oh, did I also mention both the witch and vampire are attracted to each other? No? Oh, well, they are. And so romance is likely to bloom in the midst of a coming storm.
Somewhat ironic, but the female lead is Teresa Palmer, who in 2010 was the female lead in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice…guess she really likes magic! She’s pretty solid, coming across as a mature serious business woman, able to easily handle the vamp who has entered her life although she doesn’t want anything to do with him or magic. The vamp is played by Matthew Goode, and it is a LONG way back to having seen a much younger version of him in Chasing Liberty (2004). He’s dark, he’s serious, he speaks quietly and formally. Very good impression on the witch.
The rest of the characters are ho-hum, but the two main ones are solid. Almost makes me want to run out and buy the Deborah Harkness books they are based on, but I’ll settle for watching the rest of the episodes.
And I’m not only going to watch, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict RENEWAL.
Back at the start of the TV season, I read about “The Fix”, and all I got out of it was “second chance at a serial murder case”, and my gut said CANCELLATION. I watched the first episode, and I am sticking with that prediction even though I would kind of like it to continue, even though I won’t be watching it.
The premise is a prosecutor goes after a celebrity for murder, and he is found not guilty. She retreats into the hills, leaves the DA’s office, finds a boyfriend, rides horses. Eight years later and her old partner comes knocking — the celebrity has killed someone else, they think, and he wants her to come back and help out. A second chance to GET HIM. The funny thing is that you see both sides of the case, at least somewhat, and the supposed bad guy is pretty convincing acting like the aggrieved victim of a campaign of harassment. He still has a celebrity lawyer, and he’s slick as a snake. The battle is on.
It has a similar feel to the “ripped from the headlines” tabloid dramas that were tried a couple of years ago that didn’t take. False tension, angst, drama, oooh, sexy, right? Well, not really. And since you don’t meet the victim in the opening (nor the prior victims), there isn’t much hatred to tap into to see them go after the guy again.
My first surprise in the show, since I knew very little about it, is the star. Robin Tunney plays the DA who lost 8 years before, back for Round 2, and I loved her as Agent Lisbon in The Mentalist. But let’s face it, she was second fiddle to the razzle dazzle of Patrick Jane. She wasn’t asked to emote very often, and she has limited range that I’ve seen. Here? She walks around like the previous trial just ended — exhausted, muted, sleepwalking, reluctant. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about her drama, where is our fiery sword of justice for the victim? Meh.
For other cast members, it’s a mixed bag…Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays the presumed killer, and I saw nothing worth noticing in his performance; Scott Cohen plays the slick defense lawyer, and he does a decent job; Adam Rayner plays the DA who brought the old DA back, but it’s a bit hard to get a handle on him or his character; Breckin Meyer plays the big DA in the office, and it’s nice to see him after Designated Survivor rehabilitated his ability to do semi-serious after Franklin and Bash type-casting; and Marc Blucas plays the cowboy boyfriend that Tunney’s character lives with on a ranch. It’s been a long time since he played Riley on Buffy, and it was nice to see him again.
Yet I didn’t care about ANY of the characters, who was dead, who did it, or any of the drama.
Today seems to be the day for shows I should like, but don’t. Whiskey Cavalier has at its root the premise of an FBI agent and a CIA agent working together to take down some bad guys, although the pilot is their origin story. High-energy, lots of action, international espionage, sounds great. Almost like Alias or Covert Affairs, both of which I liked.
The FBI agent is played by Scott Foley, and that’s a hit/miss thing with me. I haven’t loved him in anything, probably all the way back to Felicity days, and when the show opens, he’s crying in a hotel room in some spoof-like scene of the dumped boyfriend. He then turns into Jason Bourne for a bit, albeit with long soulful moments to talk about love.
The CIA agent is played by Lauren Cohan, and she’s awesome to watch. Cute, funny, kick-ass, did I mention cute? The two go head-to-head for the same target and it’s pretty evenly matched.
There’s some supporting cast members, but it is the two main agents for most of the show.
Which leaves me with two problems going forward. First and foremost, the tone of the show is half-spoof. They poke fun at the genre repeatedly, while playing it straight themselves, and it grates on the nerves before the end of the FIRST EPISODE. It’s not funny enough to be spoof, it’s not serious enough to be tense.
Second, the whole fun of the first episode is them competing against each other — but at the end of the episode, they join forces and will be working together. Sure, there will be interplay, but really? You upend the ENTIRE premise of the show after the first episode?
Pass.
On my early review of the show, all I knew was that it was CIA and FBI hotshots, and my prediction was CANCELLATION. I’ll stand by that now.
I should really like The Enemy Within. It has a bit of a Blacklist flavour — person convicted of treason, an enemy of the country and a former deputy director of the CIA, now helping the FBI three years later to track down a terrorist. An angry FBI agent, forced to work with her, even though she was responsible for the death of his fiancée. A shadowy brilliant bad guy, working machinations within machinations. And some familiar faces in the cast.
Morris Chestnut plays the angry FBI agent, and I really liked him as Rosewood for two seasons a couple of years ago. His character was a bit too sunshiny for my tastes at the time, but he aces this one as a cop.
Jennifer Carpenter plays the Blacklistee, the convicted traitor whose motives were never revealed (she tells the FBI in the pilot that the terrorist was going to kill her daughter). I liked her in both Dexter and Limitless, although more in Limitless. Here she is haunted and tortured, guilt-ridden for the part she was forced to play 3 years before. And I was surprised that she actually pulled it off. I like her, sure, but it wasn’t like the previous characters challenged her much for range (well, maybe Dexter at times).
John Finn shows up in the premiere, the old boss from Cold Case, who I love, but just checking on IMDB, and I guess they only had him around for one episode. Too bad.
But here’s the thing…as much as I like the actors, as much as I like the themes, and as much as I like their high-budget approach, I didn’t buy it. I wasn’t bonding with the task force (well, maybe one of them), and there are some clichés in the mix too. Spoiler alert for the ending — one of the “victims” turns out to be an inside mole. What a surprise — not! As soon as I saw her taken hostage, I thought, “Nope, she’s in on it.” But there’s another guy in the task force, and unless I’m off my rocker, he’s going to turn out to be dirty somewhere along the line too. A second bad guy. Or he’s just inept, I don’t know. But I don’t trust him, and I don’t think that is accidental.
The show just didn’t work for me. When I saw the original description, it sounded more like a Quantico-undercover thing, and I guessed “CANCELLATION”. I saw nothing in the opening that would lead me to change that prediction.
At the start of the premiere of The Code, the opening explanation is that there are Marine lawyers who enforce the US Military Code of Justice i.e., the Code, and that these lawyers are full Marines, and can be deployed as prosecutors or defense counsel or into combat. It all sounds very serious, very “new”. Except it’s not.
Ever since A Few Good Men showed us Tom Cruise as a lawyer representing PFC Downey and Lance Corporal Dawson in their trial of the murder of Private First Class William Santiago, everyone knows there are lawyers in the military. Good ones who demand the truth at whatever cost to themselves or their careers. So much so that following the movie, actual enlistment numbers jumped in the US Military. The year was 1992.
Three years later, J.A.G. premiered. It starred David James Elliott as Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb, ex-Navy pilot grounded due to night blindness, turned lawyer. His partner in crime and occasional adversary (the lawyers take turns both defending and prosecuting, depending on the case) was Catherine Bell as Sarah Mackenzie, lawyer and one squared-away Marine. Rabb and Mackenzie will put in appearance on NCIS in the not-too-distant future, so we’ll see them again, some 14 years after they went off the air.
The Code? It’s the same ground. Lawyers, or Judge Advocates as they are called in the military, are searching for the truth. The pilot episode even contains the exact same moment as A Few Good Men. Going after someone big, a more senior officer who has crossed the line, someone who is responsible in the command structure for the criminal behaviour of those below them who committed the actual act. The big moment is that all seems lost, it’s do or die time for the lawyer, commit to the attack knowing there is no net beneath them, and that they NEED the person to confess because they have no evidence in front of them. They need Colonel Jessop to admit he ordered the Code Red in A Few Good Men — they need Tom Cruise to get him to admit it. And the scene shows him on the precipice of deciding whether or not to go full hog on him with no evidence and get him to admit it, but in doing so, totally risking his career. You see Tom Cruise pause at the defense table, pour himself a glass of water while his hands shake, and decide to go for it.
In this pilot, you see the lawyer do the same thing. He’s got the guy on the stand, he’s cross-examining, he knows what happened, but he doesn’t have the video evidence yet. He’s waiting on an email to get it. But he proceeds anyway. To save the day. And then, the moment of truth. The video arrives. Game over.
The lead character is Captain John Abraham, played by Luke Mitchell. He’s practically a poster child for a marine lawyer, having been a Marine himself who got shot and can’t do infantry anymore (sound like a Navy pilot who couldn’t fly planes anymore?). I have almost always loved every role Mitchell has inhabited. Roman on Blindspot, Lincoln on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., John on the Tomorrow People. He almost makes me willing to watch Home and Away, just for his involvement. Almost. My only concern is that he has this “tragic” feeling to him, that he’s damaged somehow, and it isn’t clear if that will fit well with the “recovered Marine who has found his new home” vibe that he’s selling in the pilot episode or enough to be the main lead. He’s always been a bit of an ensemble player.
Ato Essandoh plays his immediate supervisor, Major Trey Ferry, and I was having a lot of trouble placing him while I watched. His roles have been so different, I’m not surprised. He played Sherlock’s sponsor Alfredo on Sherlock; Vernon in Altered Carbon; and Reverend Potter on Blue Bloods. Three roles I’ve seen him in during the last three years, and I didn’t figure him out at all. Moving on though, he’s pretty good here. He doesn’t have a lot to do, coming off more as a buddy of Abraham than his boss, but maybe there will be some conflict there in the future.
Abe’s opposing counsel in the first episode, and potentially a love interest for the show, is Captain Maya Dobbins, played by Anna Wood. She does a decent job, albeit a bit formal with a hint that she wasn’t always so in the past. They have a history but it isn’t revealed in the pilot what it is. Trailers show a more relaxed version in the future, which would be welcome. She makes a good foil for Abraham, not sure a good romantic foil though.
For the smaller parts, they have Raffi Barsoumian as a warrant officer who works with the lawyers who is really good at his job of arranging logistics or finding things. Almost like Tiner on JAG? Stop that, I know. Anyway, small role in the pilot, but okay. And then there’s Dana Delany as the head of the unit, Colonel Turnbull. She only has a scene or two, but of course she nails both of them. Odd to see her in such a small role though. Or to realize she’s 63 years old now. Wowzers, she looks awesome. Or as she says in the episode, she cleans up well. I haven’t seen her since Body of Proof (I only watched the pilot, didn’t really like the show much), and also hard to believe it is 30 years since China Beach. However, I have to say, she will always seem like FBI profiler/special agent Jordan Shaw from a measly two episodes on Castle. If there was ever a character on Castle that deserved her own spin-off, it was her. Sigh.
So the show rips off A Few Good Men. And J.A.G. And a few other shows. But not in a bad way. Maybe they meant it as an homage? Okay, so no, it’s a ripoff, but it’s a good ripoff at least.
When I saw the initial description for the show last fall, it seemed like JAG + CSI, and I went with RENEWAL as my prediction. I’m a little less confident in that prediction now that I’ve seen the premiere, but heck, why not…I’ll stick with that prediction.
