The fact that TV critics were given just a single advance review copy of CBS’ new drama series CIA may not say a lot, but it says something. With a slew of changes, additions, and subtractions reportedly occurring behind and in front of the camera prior to its Tuesday night premiere, there’s a sense the creative forces behind Dick Wolf’s latest procedural drama don’t quite know what they want the show to be just yet.
Perhaps they want to reserve the right to throw more stuff at the wall, in-season, to see what sticks? Additional characters? A big death or two? More cross-franchise guest spots? It’s hard to say. But whatever lightning in a bottle or TV alchemy may currently be percolating over at CBS Studios, those guys should step on it because, one episode in, it’s clear this show desperately needs a shot in the arm.
On the surface CIA is an exciting prospect. Two men — a strait-laced and by the book FBI agent (Nick Gehlfuss) and a fly-by-night, rules-be-damned CIA agent (Tom Ellis) are thrown together when they find themselves assigned to a joint government operation tasked with taking down terrorist threats on US soil. It almost feels like a set up for another Bones, or Elementary or White Collar. Bring back Buddy Cop TV! We are ready!
Both men are smart and capable. Gehlfuss plays Bill Goodman, who is by all accounts a “good man” — detail orientated, careful, methodical and persistent. Ellis is Colin Glass, a leather-jacket wearing, instinct-driven, get your hands dirty, shoot first and ask questions later kinda guy. Together this pair should make an effective team, but oh dear! They’ve hit things off on the wrong foot after Glass one-ups Goodman at the scene of the crime. Now they’re sworn enemies, endlessly sniping at and antagonizing each other until the job gets done.
“Why don’t we all put everything back in our pants and focus?” suggests the boys’ new boss Nikki Reynard (Necar Zaedgan), in one of the hour’s more cringeful lines.
The pilot episode finds the guys learning how to work together to take down a terrorist threat in the form of an energy weapon stolen from a tech company with a little help from an OCD Venezuelan asset who was off his meds at the time of his actions. In typical CBS drama fashion, the team (Goodman and Glass) race to prevent death and disaster on the streets of New York and succeed just in the nick of time. All’s well that ends well, and the boys’ next assignment puts them in the path of a smuggler and foreign intelligence officer who’s looking to defect. But you’ll have to tune in next week for more on that.
Anyone who watched Tom Ellis in Fox (and later Netflix’s) playful supernatural drama series Lucifer knows the Welsh actor has charisma for days. However all that leading man chutzpah is squandered here in favor of depicting Colin as stomping, surly, and churlish. His Britishness, highlighted by an accent switch that allows him to enter a crime scene unquestioned (take notes, Brits!), is presented as a personality trait in itself. Meanwhile, Gehlfuss’ Goodman comes off kinda milquetoasty by comparison. If Bill does have a personality under his by the book exterior the pilot hasn’t done a great job of telling us what it might be.
I can’t help the feeling that both of these characters should have been written in such a way as to leap off the page, as it’s their yin and yang natures that will ultimately attract or bore viewers after all. However, in the pilot episode at least, they are both moved about like props in service of a heavy and convoluted plot that must end in the manner of all CBS Cop dramas — with the team racing to prevent a final catastrophe.
Most CBS procedurals feature a large and diverse cast of characters who can be called upon to get shot, married, divorced, turn evil, go insane, or even die if the plot calls for it. On CIA there’s just a team of two. One would imagine that such precise casting calls for the formula to be a little more flexible? Maybe throw in a bit of humor? Spend a little more time on character and conflict? But no. Tuesday’s premiere felt like a regular season 4, episode 15 hour of predictable A-Z action instead of a polished, punchy debut that screams tune in next week!
I’ve been reviewing TV for over a decade. Occasionally, I get advance pilot episodes that are super expensive action spectacles, directed by big name guest directors, and with story, dialogue, cinematography, and editing all polished to movie-level perfection. I write a glowing review, only to discover the following week that the budget has been entirely blown on getting the pilot across the line, and the rest of the season has been written and directed by lesser mortals, and features far fewer explosions, car chases, and plane crashes. CIA feels like the opposite of that.
Nobody sets out to make a bad TV show. I certainly don’t enjoy writing bad reviews of the TV shows I am offered for review. CIA isn’t even bad, per se. It’s just lacking in charm, warmth, humor, and personality. It has two wonderful leads who haven’t been given a chance to shine, or to own their characters’ weirdness, and it follows a franchise formula so precisely that everything and everyone is rushed from plot point A to plot point Z without room to breathe. For a first impression pilot episode of a new show on a major network that is … unusual to say the least. Where is the polish? Where is the pizzaz?
CIA is the latest addition to the FBI family, joining FBI and (the recently cancelled) FBI: International, and FBI: Most Wanted. No doubt the show creatives are hoping this latest installment will be the shot in the arm necessary to keep the franchise alive in a landscape replete with other successful spun-off shows like NCIS and Fire Country.
Technically, the show should be called FBI: CIA, but the unwieldy title was clearly nixed at some point. However, no amount of careful franchise branding can hide a lack of soul. Hopefully future episodes will make room for both Ellis and Gehlfuss to fully inhabit their characters. I believe there’s an audience for a rounder more thoughtful take on the Network’s rigid franchise structures. In time, CIA may find it has something more to say, but for now the show is painting by numbers.
