In the US: Mondays, 10pm/9pm CT, CBS
Three episodes in and there’s not much really to add since my review of the first episode about the very silly Intelligence, in which Sawyer from Lost in a US government secret agent with a computer chip in his brain and and Little Red Riding Hood from Once Upon A Time is his useless minder. It’s largely the same set-up as every other CBS procedural: a by-the-numbers team that together give Sawyer easily solvable missions that are largely meaningless sci-fi drivel, with by-the-numbers (foreign) baddies (usually Chinese). There’s also a tedious story plot about Sawyer’s ex-wife being a secret agent who may or may not have been/be a terrorist. There’s the occasional element that suggests that there’s at least some understanding of science and technology among the writers, but largely it all gets skirted in favour of, for example, things like edible explosives.
But I will say this: they really should have learned from The Bionic Woman reboot, since the three episodes have spent an awful long time showing us how awesome the Chinese version of Sawyer is and not actually giving us any real missions. On top of that, the actress they chose for the part was terrible and the producers decided that because she’s ‘evil’, she must be both sexual and ‘deviant’ (better for her to be punished, unlike the ‘good’ and passive Little Red Riding Hood), so it was an even worse decision than The Bionic Woman. But with no real idea of why Sawyer’s so vital a US asset beyond an ability to access computers, and with a much better idea of why his Chinese opposite is better, it does feel like we were watching a remake of a much better show we just haven’t seen yet.
With no real sign of any life in this one, a poor set-up, poorer scripts and everything else by the numbers, I’m saying this one’s a miss rather than a hit.
Barrometer rating: 4
Rob’s prediction: Will be cancelled by the end of the season
