In Canada: Mondays, 10pm ET/PT, Showcase
Episode three of Endgame – in which a Russian chess grandmaster solves crimes all from within the confines of his hotel – has rolled round, so time for a third-episode verdict. Episode one was of course very good, while episode two was a little disappointing in comparison.
Episode three, while again not as funny as the first episode and veering towards the Canadian mean of happy endings and everyone being quite nice, still proved entertaining, thanks almost entirely to star Shawn Doyle since barely anyone else gets any decent characterisation. A novel twist that might be emerging, though, is the idea that the guest star of the week (Michael Shanks from Stargate in this case) effectively could be the ‘guest sleuth of the week’, with Shanks doing much of the legwork to help solve the mystery.
The lead character is still very stereotypically Russian, this week going for KGB conspiracies and exercises with kettle bells, but the show’s gradually finding its feet in terms of making him a little more plausible. It could do with more innovation, some of the humour from the first episode and a bit more of an edge again, but it’s worth watching I think.
Carusometer rating: 2
Rob’s prediction: Should last a season at least, but nothing’s certain after that
