DEPARTURE For Peacock

Article published as TV Review: DEPARTURE on Seat42F.

The British-Canadian drama DEPARTURE is coming to Peacock’s streaming service on September 17th. The six-episode drama, which previously aired in other countries last year, follows the investigation into an airplane that disappeared over the ocean. What took it down and why are just a couple of the questions the team must answer as they try to figure out what happened so that it cannot happen again.

The cast is excellent, led by Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) and Christopher Plummer (Lord of the Rings, Beginners). They really sell the story of DEPARTURE, and there are many wonderful moments of acting in it.

Panjabi plays Kendra Malley in DEPARTURE, a brilliant investigator who sidelined herself after a car accident claimed the life of her husband. While she has been staying home and trying to help stepson, AJ (Alexandre Bourgeois, Demain Des Hommes), try to cope, it’s clear the two haven’t exactly bonded, quite possibly because of Kendra’s lack of communication. So that could be why she accepts her mentor, Howard Lawson’s (Plummer), offer to take a high-profile case.

Not everyone is happy to see Kendra back at work, least of all Dom (Kris Holden-Ried, The Umbrella Academy), who would be leading things if she stayed home. But the entire team, including Levi Hall (Peter Mensah, Midnight, Texas), Nadia (Tamara Duarte, Wyonna Earp), and MI-5 ‘spy’ Janet Friel (Claire Forlani, Camelot), are happy to help unlock the mystery and find the truth.

They have quite a few leads to go on, most notably involving Madelyn Strong (Rebecca Liddiard, Frankie Drake Mysteries), a passenger on the plane. Her fiancé, Ali (Shazad Latif, Star Trek: Discovery), is an early suspect. Then there’s Pavel Bartok (Sasha Roiz, Grimm), an executive who might have evil intentions. But this is not an easily-explained event, and there are sure to be more than a few twists and turns along the way if the two hours I viewed are any indication.

Despite all of the above being so promising, DEPARTURE isn’t all that great. It spends far too much time in the beginning on the airplane, which is the most spacious and luxurious aircraft I’ve ever seen, with wide aisles and lots of leg room. Besides the ridiculousness of the design in terms of realism to modern flyers, the lack of notable, recognizable performers on the craft make it feel like a slow start of a low-budget production. Immediately, Lost and its less-successful wannabe copycats spring to mind, and DEPARTURE is never going to live up to that comparison, so it’s not exactly a good start.

Much of the rest of the drama backs that up. Great actors are wasted on DEPARTURE’s mediocre story, which feels a lot like any British or Canadian crime drama, though less believable than most. Some twists are obvious from a mile away and the writing feels formulaic. The opening scenes waste what could be a cool aircraft element, and lackluster special effects fail to deliver on the visual expectations. Panjabi, Plummer, and the rest are much better than the material they’re given, so despite them elevating the level of writing, it just doesn’t ever rise to something that needs to be viewed in its entirety. Which is saying something, given what a small commitment it would be to finish the season.

This is extremely disappointing. Yes, right now American networks are running out of fresh programming to fill their airwaves and streams because of the pandemic. And lots of them are borrowing from foreign productions to fill that gap, which is overall a positive, as Americans really should watch more non-American television. But DEPARTURE is just not that good, and it’s hard to believe Peacock couldn’t do better than this.

DEPARTURE begins streaming on Peacock Thursday, September 17th.

INTELLIGENCE Questioned

Article first published as TV Review: INTELLIGENCE on Seat42F.

Today, NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock, premiered (among other things) a British comedy series called INTELLIGENCE. First airing on Sky and posted on streaming Now TV in the UK, the six-episode series (first installment free to non-subscribers) follows an intelligence agency investigating cyber crimes who has just received an obnoxious NSA agent as liaison.

The first thing that strikes me is that INTELLIGENCE feels tonally similar to Netflix’s Space Force. There are very amusing bits and a great cast that is totally committing, but the show isn’t all that funny on its face. Which doesn’t mean it couldn’t be hilarious; all the key ingredients are there. It just isn’t yet, going through some weird, awkward humor that doesn’t quite land.

The Steve Carell of INTELLIGENCE is NSA agent Jerry Bernstein (David Schwimmer, Friends). Jerry clearly was not appreciated nor accomplished in the United States, despite what he says. But he’s exotic enough to the English that many seem to hold him up quite high, and he leans into that, pretending to be the hero. Unlike Carell’s Space Force commander, Jerry isn’t actually in charge. He also lacks the heart, caring about boosting his own profile, rather than helping others succeed, determined to be looked up to in this new environment where no one actually knows him.

The true boss of the office is Chris Clark (Sylvestra Le Touzel, The Crown), a no-nonsense leader whose underlings rarely meet her expectations. It feels quite strange that someone as put together as Chris has allowed this team of misfits to flourish while bucking her authority and seeming inept at almost all times. One has to wonder if she has no control over office staffing. Or perhaps this team is very effective and the audience just hasn’t seen it yet. Either way, Jerry clashes with Chris, even though Chris is bending over backwards to be accommodatingy, while stopping short of letting him run all over her.

The rest of the department (besides extras) is made up of fanboy Joseph Harries (Nick Mohammed, The Martian), cool hacker Tuva Olsen (Gana Bayarsaikhan, Wonder Woman), airhead secretary Evelyn (Eliot Salt, Normal People), and clueless mess Mary (Jane Stanness, Sally4Ever). All four seem to be some sort of stereotype. Mary looks like she could be Professor Trelawney’s sister. Only Tuva acts like she can accomplish things, but her role in the pilot is mainly to be hit on by Jerry. Hopefully, she won’t sleep with him. But given the type of show INTELLIGENCE is, it seems likely she will.

The office itself is much more The Office than Alias or any other spy show. It would be at home in a business park, mostly anyway. While there is great-looking technology, there’s also stained, threadbare carpet and dull walls. The HR department takes a week to even issue a pass, and the lobby is less than impressive. There’s a bureaucratic drabness that works well and takes away from the high tech setting one might expect in a delightful way.

Now, I’ve only seen the first of six episodes as I write this, but if the other five are anything like the pilot, we’re in for a season that has a few authentic, earned laughs each installment, but never really takes off. Which is a shame, because all the actors are really giving it their all, and there isn’t a weak link among them. All deserve to be on a solid series, so hopefully this will get there in its already-ordered second outing. Or maybe even its first, past episode one.

INTELLIGENCE is streaming now on Peacock, which you can watch via phone, browser, and only a few other devices, not including popular options like Roku and Amazon Fire.

Catch THE CAPTURE

Article first published as TV Review: THE CAPTURE on Seat42F.

NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock, launched today with a handful of original series. One of them is THE CAPTURE, a six-episode drama (with the first installment free to non-subscribers) in which a military officer, just cleared of a crime during wartime, possibly commits murder against the barrister that defended him. Did he do it? If he did, was he sane at the time, since he doesn’t seem to remember it? If he didn’t do it, who faked the CCTV footage showing him do it and why? The last seems far-fetched, but it is a very interesting story.

My first thought about THE CAPTURE was that it feels like a British crime drama. Unsurprisingly, it is, having aired on BBC One last fall. So by saying it’s a Peacock ‘original’ series, that only means it’s original on the platform here in the States. In my opinion, Peacock doesn’t deserve much credit for buying it, although the show certainly deserves an American run. If the streaming site (not available on most streaming devices, a major knock against it) is seeking to set a brand for itself, this doesn’t do it any favors, being obviously someone else’s borrowed style.

At the center of THE CAPTURE is DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger, The Borgias), a fast-rising cop who needs to oversee a major investigation to move up the next rung on the ladder. The case mentioned above may just be it. Not everyone who works with her is happy about her rapid ascension, but the ones that seem smart apparently respect her, so she’s a Good Guy; a typical driven, strong hero. Grainger fulfills the role very nicely.

Shaun Emery (Callum Turner, War & Peace) is the soldier who spent time behind bars and then was cleared, just before being arrested again. This character is the complex one, and surely will be given the most thought by audiences. It seems extremely likely that he did commit the murder, given that the CCTV stream was witnessed as it ran live, even if he doesn’t have any memory of it. And he has no explanation for what is shown. As long as you believe Shaun is telling the truth as he knows it, there definitely appears to be mental issues key to the issue at hand. Shaun’s lack of memory could be an act, but it doesn’t feel likely.

What’s more, knowing he could do something like this calls into question if he was innocent of the other crime, which was chalked up to bad technology. But maybe the tech wasn’t flawed. In fact, camera advancement is as much a character as the two leads. CCTV is shown quite a bit, as is the body cam Shaun wore overseas. Most of the evidence in both cases hinges on this footage. How reliable is it? Given that it is called into question right away, it certainly seems to have its fair share of flaws. So can it be trusted at all, even when what it’s showing seems like an obvious crime?

There have been other shows with a similar hook as THE CAPTURE uses cameras. There have also been plenty of other British crime dramas in this vein that are widely lauded and highly entertaining. This could indicate that THE CAPTURE isn’t needed, given that it fits very firmly into already established molds. And yet, it is compelling, with solid direction, writing, and acting that mean, even if you’ve seen a bunch of the others, it may be worth it to watch this one, too.

Admittedly, I’ve come out against American crime procedurals in the past. I don’t know why I find British six-episode formulas better than a case-of-the-week format, but I do. THE CAPTURE is a great example of this.

Watch THE CAPTURE on Peacock now.

Not-So BRAVE NEW WORLD?

Article first published as TV Review: BRAVE NEW WORLD on Seat42F.

Peacock, the new NBC streaming service that launched today, wants to take you to a BRAVE NEW WORLD. The book by Aldous Huxley gets a nine-episode television adaptation, with two episodes free to everyone and the other seven for subscribers only. For this review, I watched only the first two.

BRAVE NEW WORLD is one of my favorite books, though it’s been a little while since I read it. Many of the familiar elements are present in this version, such as the extreme caste society. On the higher end, everyone is connected at all times by a network, and are barred from any privacy, monogamy, or pregnancy. Children are genetically engineered from birth and raised in groups, rather than by parents. Out in the desert live the ‘savages,’ or people closer to what we have today, who still marry. But they’re violent and miserable, while the ones in the New World are happy. If they’re not happy, there are plenty of drugs readily available to make them so.

Most of the main characters are there, too. Bernard Marx (Harry Lloyd, Game of Thrones) is near the top of the food chain as an Alpha Plus. But he’s a little off. He soon becomes taken with B+ Lenina Crowne (Jessica Brown Findlay, Downton Abbey), who experimented with a single partner for a while. Together, they journey to the Savage Land and meet John (Alden Ehrenreich, Solo: A Star Wars Story), who is being raised by single mom Linda (Demi Moore, Empire). But revolution breaks out while they’re there. While back at home, the Director (Ed Stoppard, Knightfall) and Mustafa Mond (Nina Sosanya, Good Omens) try to figure out why CJack60 (Joseph Morgan, The Originals) is acting funny after the death of his friend.

But there are quite a few differences, too. The character of Helm (Hannah John-Kamen, Killjoys) is quite a bit different from her literary counterpart. And the Savage Land is a lot more developed and fleshed out, with more action going down there. I’m not sure if these additions are designed to build a world that can keep going past the initial adaptation of the novel, inevitably a one-season project, or if they’re just meant to enhance aspects of the story that aren’t explored all that much on the page.

Neither the Enlightened nor the Savages have it all that good. There are pluses and minuses to both worlds. Sure, the Savages have more freedom, but they also have less overall, and are treated like dirt, made to play for the amusement of the advanced society. Either one of these two worlds could make up a post-apocalyptic landscape, and combining them is both interesting and a bit confusing because it’s hard to know which side to root for. Don’t we want things to get better? But at what cost? With more focus on the Savage place, this springs fully to light.

What might be remarkable is that the main ideas presented in BRAVE NEW WORLD no longer feel new. There have been so many dystopian series, especially as of late, that have borrowed elements from the source material that this one almost feels like a repeat of what’s come after the book. I’m not sure if that’s a testament to how far Huxley could see into the future, or just proof that good ideas are often stolen and done to death. With Westworld, Altered Carbon, Black Mirror, and so many others, does BRAVE NEW WORLD stand a chance of breaking through?

I guess, maybe. There’s some fine acting, though it stops short of breathtaking (which I’m not sure is fully the actors’ fault). The obligatory sex and danger is present in this iteration of BRAVE NEW WORLD, and that keeps the pacing moving. I’m not sure these particular ideas are begging to be explored again on screen, but they are always relevant. I liked it, but didn’t fall in love the way I expected to. Still, I want to finish watching.

The biggest obstacle BRAVE NEW WORLD faces is the platform it is on. Peacock rudely launched without much access for those who don’t enjoy watching TV on a phone or browser. Certain Smart TVs can access it, and it works with Chromecast. But it lacks an app on Amazon Fire, Roku, TiVo, or other streaming devices. Personally, I was very annoyed at the hoops I had to jump through to watch, and hope Peacock gets its act together if it wants to succeed. Then again, at a too-high price tag ($9.99/month for the ad-free version without nearly the catalogue that Netflix or Hulu boasts), do we even need another streaming service? Maybe it would be easier for another streamer to absorb the content.

BRAVE NEW WORLD is available now exclusively on Peacock.