I was surprised by Piper Perabo, however. She's not nearly as egregiously miscast as I'd assumed she'd be, and not to harp on the endless Alias comparisons, but she did sort of remind me of Sydney Bristow, personality-wise. She's perky and sweet and romantic, and she slips right into the same ditzy girl character Sydney used to whenever she was caught being up to no good (the first time Annie Walker innocently claims to just be looking for the bathroom, drink!), and her performance works well enough for the tone of the show. Of course, they had to Fiona Glenanne her by giving her some guy that got away to pine after, which is disappointing and usually pretty uninteresting, but such is television -- it's against the law for a lead character to not have a love interest, after all.

The show doesn't forge any new ground in the spy genre, but it's a serviceable retread of tropes. There was a car chase, an attempted assassination at a swanky cocktail party, a fight on an abandoned subway platform, a quirky optech guy, a stern boss lady, a hilariously clumsy product placement ("I saw it on your OpenTable.com account!"), and some ludicrous-but-fun Alias-type shit in stealing a thumbprint with a Listerine breath strip and successfully using it to get past security. The show may shun wigs and tight Eurotrash dresses, but it's still firmly in the realm of spy stuff we've all seen before. And that's fine, the familiar is a comfortable and perfectly entertaining place to live for a show like this. It's just nothing to write home about. And yes, I did notice that fun actors (CTB, Clarke Peters, Peter Gallagher, Charles Logan next week, etc.) are on it. Fun actors are on almost every show; it's not a reason to rave about something regardless of its faults.

Though I should say that it's a hundred times better than the awful Undercovers pilot I watched, and only slightly better than CW's attempt at Nikita. So as far as I can tell, this is the best lady government operative show you're going to get for the time being. Unfortunately.

Tell us what you thought of the show, and then check out our Peter Gallagher Q&A and see how to make a USA show!

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