I Pledge ALLEGIANCE (Well, Sort Of)

Article first published as ALLEGIANCE Review on Seat42F.

As NBC’s new ALLEGIANCE begins, it’s easy to draw comparisons to FX’s The Americans. ALLEGIANCE also involves Russian spies living among us whose children the Russian government would like to recruit. However, as the first hour plays out, comparisons fall away because of a different setting, time period, and vastly different story, and by the end of the pilot, I found myself quite engaged.

At the center of ALLEGIANCE is the O’Connor family. Mother Katya (Hope Davis, The Newsroom) once upon a time fell in love with an American, father Mark (Scott Cohen, Necessary Roughness). She was allowed to marry him and move to the United States in exchange for the two of them offering up intel to the KGB. Eventually, their daughter, Natalie (Margarita Levieva, Revenge), became part of the deal.

But as Allegiance begins, it’s been years since the O’Connors heard from Katya’s former home country, and they are not sorry to be done with Katya’s former government. Now, though, the SVR, successor to the KGB, wants their son, Alex (Gavin Stenhouse, Iconicles), a new analyst at the CIA, as an asset. Katya is horrified, happy to be living as an American, and wants nothing to do with this. But she may not have a choice.

The pilot of ALLEGIANCE barely gets started in the cat-and-mouse game that will surely unfold. There are plenty of twists, keeping viewers guessing at how much will be revealed how early to each person (though, of course, secrets will come out). Warring motivations of not just the groups involved, but also the individuals, make the match up complex, rather than predictable. Unexpected connections pop up from time to time, further deepening the web.

The cast also includes, besides the four mentioned above, a younger O’Connor daughter still at home, Sarah (Alexandra Peters, Saige Paints the Sky), a Russian handler, Victor (Morgan Spector, Boardwalk Empire), and Alex’s boss, Sam (Kenneth Choi, Sons of Anarchy). This isn’t a large enough group to keep the story going strong for too long, but it’s a fine starting core, giving us one representative of each organization, as well as the all-important family unit.

ALLEGIANCE isn’t wholly original. Certainly, there are many elements, from the sleeper cell to the parents keeping secrets from their children to spy games, that feel quite familiar. With The Americans still successfully airing, it also feels too soon for another show like it on television. However, it’s several steps better in quality than last year’s The Asset. As long as it sticks to its initial serial nature, rather than being forced into a procedural box, as has happened with NBC’s Grimm, this show could say something worth listening to.

The performances are fine, though a little soapier than I’d like. Tonally, I seem similarities to ABC’s Revenge, though thankfully ALLEGIANCE doesn’t push the bounds of reality nearly as much. I think it’s acceptable to have a little melodrama. I just hope it’s reigned in enough to not distract from the parts of the story that really matter, and that the plot focuses more on political machinations than romantic relationships, which are OK if done right and not just hooking up every male character with every female one over time, but tend to be overused to shows’ detriment.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by ALLEGIANCE. Offerings from the Big Four have been pretty disappointing lately, so I admit to going into this one with considerably lowered expectations. The fact that the pilot intrigues me and makes me wonder what’ll happen next is a good thing, even if the characters aren’t ones easy to instantly connect to. The hour takes its time getting started, but once it does, it’s clear that the writers have a plan in place and the story is going somewhere. I’m not fully committed to watching the rest of the season, but it has at least earned a second and third viewing.

ALLEGIANCE premieres this Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

THE CARRIE DIARIES "Runs" Out of Time

Article first published as THE CARRIE DIARIES "Runs" Out of Time on TheTVKing.

The CW's The Carrie Diaries, a prequel of sorts to Sex and the City, but taking its cue from the novels, rather than the HBO show, draws its second season to a close this week in "Run to You." As they graduate, Carrie (AnnaSophia Robb) and her friends are at a crossroads. Their decisions will take them in different directions, and none has a harder choice to make than Carrie herself.

"Run to You" is a disappointing hour because of the lack of female empowerment. Here's Carrie, eighteen years old and barely out of high school, and she's ready to move across the country with no prospects of her own for a guy, Sebastian (Austin Butler). Granted, Carrie may be trying to escape her problems, having lost her job, too late to try to go to college in the fall, and estranged from her father, Tom (Matt Letscher). But still...

Even worse is Maggie's (Katie Findlay) story. She is a strong girl who is just finding out how she can stand on her own, but rather than decide that she wants to pursue her own goals, she's happy to accept Pete's (Claybourne Elder) marriage proposal. Will she even still go to college now? Who knows? Her fate is in the hands of a guy she only recently met.

Samantha (Lindsey Gort), the epitome of a woman who can use a man for her own selfish needs, though she isn't cruel, is watered done and overly sentimental in The Carrie Diaries. Perhaps she hasn't grown into who she will be yet, but this version of Samantha contains only occasional hints of the beloved icon fans adore.

This isn't a great example to have on TV for impressionable teens to watch. The characters of Sex and the City wanted to find love, sure, but that was far from the only thing going on with them, and they weren't going to compromise themselves or settle. The Carrie Diaries is teaching a new generation that its OK to just find a guy and do what he wants. Carrie herself breaks away from this at the end of "Run to You," but it's too little, too late, the message already hammered home.

 This show is set in the 1980s, so it's not like women were only destined to be housewives at the time. The 1980s was a period where females did want careers and were proving they were as good as men, continuing to break into fields that were long male-dominated. Where is that spirit in this finale? If anyone would subscribe to it, it would be Carrie Bradshaw, who has shown her mettle in previous installments.

Even Larissa (Freema Agyeman), the symbol of the free-spirited, independent woman, ties the knot in this season finale, marrying Harlan (Scott Cohen) in an airport. Granted, she has negotiated the arrangement she wants with him, but she's also using him as a crutch to escape her unemployment issue, bumping up the marriage so she can concentrate on fun in his arms, rather than trying to rebuild her career yet. It's not inspiring.

I do give The Carrie Diaries credit for not doing a traditional graduation episode. Since there have only been two short seasons, it would be weird to have big, tearful goodbyes for several of the players, but a lot of shows would have done so anyway. In "Run to You," the ceremony is brushed over in favor of getting to more character development, even if it's not good development.

I also liked the ending between Mouse (Ellen Wong) and West (RJ Brown). They are forced back into one another's orbits and do sleep together, but then Mouse tells him it was a good way to leave things, both heading on to very different futures.

The Carrie Diaries has done some things right. The portrayal of homosexuals in the 1980s is eye-opening. The main gay character, Walt (Brendan Dooling), is a fully fleshed out individual who defies stereotypes and forces his parents to confront who he is in a very moving scene. Donna (Chloe Bridges) ends up being a really interesting person, the pretty bully who is secretly a genius. The father-daughter relationship between Tom and Carrie and Tom and Dorrit (Stefania Owen) is great, and the sister bond between Carrie and Dorrit is sweet. The period references are only occasionally forced. The acting is decent.

But it also gets a lot wrong, as I've argued in many of the above paragraphs. It's a fluff teen drama that doesn't live up to its potential or legacy, and with the chance of a third season so low, it's not unlikely to be long-remembered. I did find it entertaining enough to sit through all twenty-six installments, and I'll admit I'd like to see it go on, albeit with a few things corrected, and likely without most of the cast just because that's what makes sense for the story.

I guess the thing that bothers me most about The Carrie Diaries, though, and this is a huge obstacle going in, is that none of these people are still in Carrie's life when she's an adult, except Samantha, of course. That means with every squabble she has with them, I'm waiting to see this being the last straw for their relationship. Yet, the tone of the show does not allow anything but hugs and reconciliation. This robs the chance of it being any kind of true prequel to the original show, lessening my enjoyment considerably. It needs more pathos.

The Carrie Diaries has not been picked up, and the odds are not in its favor.

Necessary Roughness - "Pilot"

     USA's newest drama is Necessary Roughness, which premiered this Wednesday night. The central character in the pilot is therapist Dr. Dani Santino (Callie Thorne, Rescue Me, The Wire), who, as soon as the series starts, learns that her husband of seventeen years, Ray (Craig Bierko, Boston Legal, Damages) has been cheating on her... a lot. She dumps him, and six weeks later, while still pursuing her divorce, she meets Matthew (Marc Blucas, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). They fall into bed, but their relationship changes dramatically when Matthew introduces Dani to his boss, a football coach. Dani is asked to help a star player who has been faltering named T.K. (Mehcad Brooks, True Blood, Desperate Housewives). Because they are now working together, Dani tells Matthew they can't have a sexual relationship. Dani helps TK, and she is asked to take on more clients.

     Necessary Roughness does, admittedly, break the formula that USA had become mired in, as many of their newer shows do. That is the best compliment it can be paid, because other than that, the "Pilot" does not impress. Thorne herself is grating, and less than likeable. That's not an excuse for her character's husband to cheat on her, of course, as she claims to have been the "perfect wife and mother," but that self-made claim rings hollow as her husband and kids lie to her. Did she ever really have a handle on what is going on in her household? She seems to have her own set of morals and codes, which are abstract and have a shifting morality line.

     Dani's quick "miracle" with TK is much less than realistic. Considering that is the biggest premise in the first episode, it should have been handled better. Sure, it takes Dani days, maybe even a couple of weeks, to get through to TK. But she does, and now all is right with the world. It's strange that TK is a main character, since previews show Dani working with a number of other patients, mostly athletes, many of them not part of the football team. It is unknown at this time what exactly the structure of the show will be, but other than Dani, the other main characters all connected to one football organization. This makes the trailer confusing.

     Besides Dani, TK, and Matthew, Nico (Scott Cohen, Law & Order: Trail By Jury, Gilmore Girls) is the other member of the main cast. He is a guy who "takes care of things" for the football team. His mystery, which, of course, has the violent underpinnings, is what makes him interesting. And while similar characters have been done numerous times before, they've seldom been as intriguing as Cohen, who radiates the necessary "it." If Necessary Roughness is to be interesting in the long term, the greatest chance lies with focus, but not too much detail, on Nico. Audiences should be kept guessing his motivations and his actual actions, but he needs to have a hand in everything.

     Brooks also handles his part with relative ease. He is, after all, a veteran of a number of fine television shows, and knows how to capture an essence by now. Even if his plot falls a little flat, it's not to be blamed on the actor. Blucas has grown a lot since Buffy, and also is an acceptable performer, though isn't given a lot to work with. Not sure why his character puts up with Dani's no sex rule, the reasoning behind it being weak, at best. Matthew needs to grow a little backbone to rise from flat, straight, supporting, mostly silent man. Otherwise, there's not much of a reason to keep him around.

     To see if Necessary Roughness progresses anywhere after its "Pilot," tune in on USA Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET.

     If you missed "Pilot," you can get it streaming for free by clicking here.

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