Romantic chemistry? Yup; decent storyline? Uh-oh

Opinion

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This article was published 22/09/2010 (5488 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

UNDERCOVERS

NBC/Citytv/tonight at 7

Starring: Boris Kodjoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Gerald McRaney.

Premise: After a five-year retirement from the spy game, a couple of married former CIA agents are lured back into the espionage world to help rescue a missing colleague and soon realize just how much they miss the action.

Lowdown: Obviously intended as sort of a 21st-century Hart to Hart, this romance-infused spy caper is very well cast — the chemistry between its two largely unknown leads is obvious and immediate. Unfortunately, in crafting a light-hearted drama, the pilot episode’s scriptwriters seem to have abandoned any notion of logic or reality, and the result is a storyline that’s so flat-out silly that it’s actually a bit annoying. Coming, as it does, from producer J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost), this clumsy offering is quite a disappointment.

Quotable: “The funny thing is, when we first starting casting, J.J. and I said adamantly to the casting people, ‘We are not hiring any foreign actors for these roles; we can’t deal with people faking American accents (because) it never works.’ And then we ended up with the two of them, so it shows you how much we know.” — executive producer Josh Reims, on hiring Austrian-born Boris Kodjoe and English actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the series’ stars.

Bottom line: The well-matched romantic leads are appealing, but the quality of the scripts needs to improve in a hurry or Under- will be over.

 

BETTER WITH YOU

ABC/tonight at 7:30

Starring: JoAnna Garcia, Jennifer Finnigan, Josh Cooke, Jake Lacy, Kurt Fuller, Debra Jo Rupp.

Premise: A relationship-driven sitcom that follows three couples within one family — one sister who’s been dating her boyfriend for years without ever deciding to get married, another sibling who’s been with her guy for only a few weeks but has declared that it’s time to get hitched and have kids, and the girls’ parents, who can’t see the sense in either daughter’s decision.

Lowdown: An ensemble of reliable veterans and rising TV stars can’t lift this comedy above the heap of stereotypes and oft-repeated jokes in which it’s mired. Rupp and Fuller are an imposing duo as the parents trying to make sense of their daughters’ dating dilemmas, and both Garcia and Finnigan are likable as sisters with distinctly different views on love and marriage, but every setup and every punchline just feel like they’ve been seen before at least a dozen times.

Quotable: “I couldn’t wait to get back to comedy. I did some pretty serious stuff, the last one being Close to Home, where I was a lawyer and it was 18-hour days and legal jargon. It was a great job, but I missed comedy… When you’re working 80-hour weeks and you’re crying all day, it’s kind of hard to be a fulfilled person in your everyday life.” — Montreal-born series co-star Jennifer Finnigan, happy to be tackling some less-serious subject matter.

Bottom line: Prime time is actually not better with this.

 

THE WHOLE TRUTH

ABC/Citytv, tonight at 9

Starring: Rob Morrow, Maura Tierney, Kathryn Peale, Eamonn Walker, Sean Wing, Anthony Reivivar, Christine Adams.

Premise: A legal drama that offers viewers behind-the-scenes glimpses at how both sides — prosecution and defence — prepare their cases for trial. Tierney plays a hard-nosed New York State district attorney; Morrow plays a rising-star criminal attorney who’s been her friend and rival since college.

Lowdown: The Whole Truth suffered a serious shakeup late in the production process when original co-star Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) dropped out to deal with family issues after the pilot had been shot, but it’s hard to imagine that too much was lost because Tierney is such an able counterpoint to Morrow. He’s all bluster and attitude, she’s by-the-book intense, and watching them face off in the courtroom is seeing two very capable TV performers drawing as much out of each other as possible. The narrative style, which tries to place equal emphasis on prosecution and defence, is a bit choppy, but there’s reason to believe this problem could be ironed out in future episodes.

Quotable: “As we said at the time, Joely’s life was fairly complicated, and (letting her go) was the right thing to do, to let her go and deal with it. And the timing worked out great, because Maura was available and was able to do it. It was a gamble, but it paid off.” — executive producer Jonathan Littman, on hiring co-star Maura Tierney when she returned to acting after having undergone treatment for breast cancer.

Bottom line: When both sides argue their cases this well, the verdict has got to be delivered in their favour.

 

THE DEFENDERS

CBS/CTV, tonight at 9

Starring: Jerry O’Connell, James Belushi, Jurnee Smollett, Tanya Fischer, Gillian Vigman.

Premise: A light-hearted legal drama about a pair of hard-working and equally hard-living attorneys who employ a high-stakes approach at their Las Vegas law firm.

Lowdown: See page D1 for full program description.

Quotable: “I’ve found, in the interviews I’ve done with defence attorneys, that they’re just guys. They’re real guys, and they’re put in a position where they have to defend people that most people don’t like. And they have really strong values and a strong sense of character because they really believe that everyone deserves due process.” — series star Jim Belushi, explaining his inclination to portray a defence lawyer.

Bottom line: Belushi and O’Connell have been dealt a winning hand.

 

LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES

NBC/CTV/9 p.m./Sept. 29

Starring: Skeet Ulrich, Corey Stoll, Terrence Howard, Alfred Molina.

Premise: The tried-and-true L&O formula — half police investigation, half courtroom showdown — moves from the mean streets of Manhattan’s concrete jungle to the sun-soaked freeways and beaches of L.A.

Lowdown: The blueprint is both familiar and successful; the various L&O properties have been doing the capture-and-convict thing effectively for a couple of decades. But how the sun-soaked spin on the franchise concept will look remains a bit of a mystery as NBC has been slow to make a pilot episode available for preview.

Quotable: “I would challenge (any) assumption that L.A. isn’t as interesting as New York. As far as the divide between rich and poor is concerned, I don’t think you can get any more dramatic than the divide between East L.A. and West L.A. The essential difference between New York and L.A. is that New York is a big stew of people; it really is a melting pot… and L.A. is a mosaic of communities, and I think a fun part of these shows is that each episode can focus on a separate community, a separate piece of that mosaic.” — executive producer Rene Balcer, explaining the benefit of imposing the L&O blueprint on a West Coast environment.

Bottom line: The jury’s out, but the case seems solid, even in a slot that’s suddenly overcrowded with new legal dramas.

 

SHATTERED

Global/9 p.m./premiered Sept. 1

Starring: Callum Keith Rennie, Camille Sullivan, Molly Parker, Cle Bennett, Martin Cummins.

Premise: A veteran detective’s career is threatened when a long-under-control multiple-personality disorder begins to re-emerge.

Lowdown: This new Canadian-made drama was given a bit of head-start on the fall-launch pack when Global premiered it at the beginning of the month, which was probably a smart idea since no homegrown offering could possibly compete with the massive wave of U.S.-programming promotional hype. Rennie is always an intense presence onscreen, and early indications are that this is a character that he could take on a long, interesting journey.

Bottom line: Now that the full fall wave has hit, here’s hoping the programmers at Global will give this Canuck upstart the support it deserves.

 

RETURNING-SHOW ROUNDUP:

Survivor: Nicaragua — 7 p.m., CBS/Global, premiered Sept. 15

The Middle — tonight at 7, ABC

Dragons’ Den — tonight at 7, CBC

Lie To Me — 7 p.m., Fox, premieres Nov. 10

Criminal Minds — tonight at 8, CBS/CTV

NCIS — tonight at 8, Global (premiered Sept. 21 on CBS)

Modern Family — tonight at 8, ABC/Citytv

Law & Order: SVU — tonight at 8, NBC (premiered Sept. 19 on CTV)

Hell’s Kitchen — tonight at 8, Fox (premieres Friday on Citytv)

Cougar Town — tonight at 8:30, ABC/Citytv

The Tudors — tonight at 9, CBC