As a part of Undercovers Wednesdays, I will be giving you my review of the pilot episode of Undercovers, the J.J. Abrams new spy show starring Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Steven and Samantha Bloom, married ex-CIA agents who are drawn back into the spy game after a five year absence. The show garnered a lot of buzz during production due to Abrams’s name being attached to it and the fact that its two lead characters happened to be African-American, which co-creator Josh Reims suspected would be a big thing. “We all wish it wasn’t such a big deal at this point … but unfortunately that’s the way it is right now,” Reims told The Hollywood Reporter in July. It is good to note that Gugu Mbatha-Raw is actually British, while Boris Kodjoe is African American.
Undercovers has been compared to shows like Abrams’ first spy drama, Alias, and the classic Hart to Hart, both of which I have yet to view on my own in their entirety. So with the similarities between those two shows, Abrams’s established name attached to it, and two African-American lead characters in place, does Undercovers live up to the hype of being the next big thing?
In short, yes and no.
Before I explain myself, let’s initiate those who have been living up under a rock in terms of the premise of Undercovers.
Steven Bloom (Kodjoe) and his wife Samantha (Mbatha-Raw) are a married couple with the only spice in their marriage being in the food that they make in their highly successful catering business, Bloom Catering. While the Blooms’ life seems humdrum on the outside, they actually have an extremely exciting background that is about to be reactivated. Turns out that the Blooms are former spies for the CIA, having been retired for five years. The disappearance of former ally Leo Nash (Carter McIntyre) is brought to their attention by Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney), a CIA company man, who asks the Blooms to jump back into the spy game to retrieve Nash and the information he holds. As they take the assignment, the Blooms rediscover the spark that was ignited when they first met. They jetset across the globe looking for Nash, all while making sure their latest catering assignment go as planned.
The pilot presentation pretty much set up the premise of the show without throwing hints of an overall mythological arc. That’s right, folks. There isn’t a hint of a Rimbaldi, a Dharma, or a Massive Dynamics-like entity overshadowing the Blooms throughout the pilot. Abrams and Reims promised “stand alone” episodes with Undercovers, and that’s what the pilot felt like, which means that they may stick to their guns on this one. With that said, is it bad that one hopes that they don’t stick to their guns on the mythology thing? I never thought that the mythology of a genre show was a creative hinderance down the line, but how a writer or creator handles said mythology, which could be the equivalent of having a WMD – it’s dangerous in the wrong hands. However, a first season of stand alone episodes could be a great tool for the show to gain fans by setting up the Blooms world, where we can care about them as characters instead of a mythology, which can become a character in itself and become a scene stealer. Maybe next season we can get something serial going on. Please? Other than that, the story itself was pretty basic and left me wanting more, which could be a good or bad thing depending on what you are looking for.
The characters of Steven and Samantha are a perfect fit, in my opinion. Kodjoe and Mbatha-Raw have the chemistry to not only make this husband and wife team bearable to watch, but they both ooze the sexuality to cinch the deal. The clever word “sexpionage” uttered in the pilot describes these two to the ‘T’ and I personally hope that it becomes popular in the world of pop culture. I personally couldn’t get enough of seeing the two of them together, but some of the dialogue thrown amongst the two was a bit too sweet for my tastes. I can dig a bit of romance every now and then, but not enough to make my eyes roll on sight. Granted, the banter between the two if them was top notch, which I would like more of rather than the smoochy goochy stuff, please and thank you.
Another thing of note were the title cards for each city the Blooms visited. They were highly reminiscent of Alias’s jet setting titles, yet they still had it’s own signature of an Abrams tired and true aesthetic. The action scenes were on point and seeing Gugu Mbatha-Raw kick ass was the highlight of the entire pilot to me… that and seeing her in lingerie, but that’s another story.
In the end, Undercovers has a spot on my DVR (plus live viewing) and I have no doubt that it will appeal to die-hard J.J. Abrams fans, as well as the casual viewer. The pilot can leave the viewer wanting more, but again, that could go either way with a modern television audience that can be severely fickle at moments. I just hope the fickle stick around for the ride. A.
Undercovers premieres on Wednesday, September 22 at 8:00 p.m./7c on NBC.
