Undercovers
Undercovers features a married couple who are also CIA agents (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw). After five years of retirement, the agency has roped them back in.
Once again I feel I must draw a comparison to Alias. The reason is two-fold. For one thing, Alias set the bar for any spy show, and it's a tough mark to hit. But also, both Alias and Undercovers were created by J.J. Abrams.
Abrams is back with his trademark witty banter and the kind of fun-filled action/comedy romp we love him for. Oh wait. That's not what we love about J.J. Abrams?
Abrams has actually become popular for setting deep and complex characters in the context of a dense mythology (e.g. Lost or his recent Star Trek film). Undercovers feels like what Alias would be if you stripped away everything that made it an important and critically-acclaimed series.
I can appreciate it if Abrams wanted to try something new (there was certainly no need for him to recreate Alias) but this feels more like pandering. When compared with his other work, Undercovers seems self-consciously commercial.
It's fun and fast-paced. I can definitely see people watching it. I was just hoping for something more.
Better With You
Better With You is a comedy about three couples in three different stages of relationships: the engaged-after-two-months young lovers (Joanna Garcia, Jake Lacy), the young couple in a serious nine-year relationship (Jennifer Finnegan, Josh Cooke), and the parents who've been married 35 years (Debra Jo Rupp, Kurt Fuller).
Better With You is funny enough. I got a few laughs from the episode. But I'm not really impressed. It feels stale. The cast is made up of two-dimensional stock characters. There's nothing new about the premise or execution. We've been there, done that a hundred times before, often with better jokes.
This show is also not what it claims to be, at least not yet. Yes, it has three couples. But aside from the gags that opened and closed the episode, it doesn't do much in the way of comparing the three relationships. This may develop more in future episodes. The pilot had a story about six people that happened to be paired up. What I think would be more interesting is to give each couple a story in the episode, with the three stories linked thematically (think Sex and the City) and use that to explore how the three relationships are fundamentally similar or different.
Maybe I'm thinking too hard about what's meant to be a light 'n' fluffy comedy? I could be wrong, but I don't see this one becoming very popular.
The Whole Truth
The Whole Truth has an interesting twist on the courtroom drama. It follows both the prosecution and the defense as they prepare and try their case. In the end, only the viewer learns "the whole truth".
The premise is so simple, I'm surprised we haven't seen it before. (Maybe we have and I just don't know about it?) In your usual lawyer show, you're rooting for one side or the other. You're thinking "I hope they get that bad guy" or "I hope that innocent man goes free". The Whole Truth keeps things evenly balanced so you're never quite rooting for either side. You get the delightful stance of just being on the side of justice. As I watched I found myself thinking "I hope they get that bad guy. Unless he's not bad. Then I hope they acquit. I just hope they do the right thing either way." Isn't that interesting?
A complaint I have with the pilot is they seemed to have too many balls in the air. The case was really twisted up so that no single aspect of it got very much screen time. It sometimes felt rushed, especially in the courtroom sequence that was essentially a montage of all the witnesses.
I always prefer shows with longer story arcs, but this is a strong enough show that I think I might check out it's stand-alone episodes from time to time.
The Defenders
The Defenders is about a pair of brilliant-but-flawed defense attorneys (Jerry O'Connell and Jim Belushi) in Las Vegas.
I don't have much to say about The Defenders. It's a lawyer show. I like lawyer shows, generally. I didn't find the characters terribly interesting, although the case they tried in the pilot was fun to watch. It fell into a sort of moral grey area, raising questions about the thin line between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
The action was a little one-sided. Obviously they're not going for the same balance as The Whole Truth, but the show seemed unfairly prejudiced against the prosecution and even the judge. It was like everyone was out to get our heroic defenders.
Nothing too thrilling. Might be worth a watch if you're a big fan of the lawyer stuff.
Things are finally slowing down - no more four-shows-a-day for me! Tonight offers My Generation on ABC, $#*! My Dad Says on CBS, and Outsourced on NBC.
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