The Catch

We are loving this show. Finding it fun, clever and entertaining. It is enjoyable, much like the old Mission Impossible series was, but with a modern look and much more intrigue and play. Life is crazy, and it is nice to come home and disappear into the fantasy of a spunky intelligent thriller. It is also nice to have that story told without the extraneous and exploitive blood, guts and gore of other shows. The characters are fleshing out slowly, and cannot be taken at face value. Each week builds nicely on the previous one, which help to draw the watcher into the growing story. Mireille Enos is fun to watch, with her Monroeish eye-flutter affectations. She is mesmerizing, and nicely underplays the roll. In fact the show has strong and interesting female rolls with Sonya Walger playing the anti-hero steamily well. Yes, they are stereotyped, but aren't most fantasies? If we wanted to watch 'real life' we would just turn off the TV!

I really enjoy this show because it's fun, plain and simple. It's fast moving so most of the details are left out and things just happen. Is it realistic? I'm sure it isn't, but I do sometimes enjoy lighter fare (only one murder so far) that just entertains. It packs a lot into each episode and for me, it never drags. I think Mireille Enos and Peter Krause are great in their respective roles and I especially enjoy Krause's subtle expression changes that convey a wistfulness when he is thinking about Alice. I bet a lot of women would love to have someone think that way about them. And maybe I really like the characters because they are older (is that why some people think they're ugly?). I do hope this show finds a niche and is able to maintain the fast pace.

I was extremely interested in watching this series when I saw the trailer a couple of months ago. It reminded me a bit of The Thomas Crown Affair with the amazing attraction between the lead investigator and the sexy con artist. I had even persuaded friends to give it a try. So when it finally came out last month, I can't say enough how disappointed I was when I began watching. There seemed to be changes to the original trailer. So I went back and found that the original trailer I had seen was missing and another had replaced it. The original male lead had been replaced by Peter Krause and his female cohort was replaced by Sonya Walger. It seemed they have even changed the plot of the pilot. As I continued watching the first two episodes, I've found the feel of the show had been compromised in my opinion. To me, the chemistry between Enos and Krause just isn't quite the same as it was in that first trailer with Damon Dayoub. I love Mireille Enos and the rest of the cast. They are superb. But the show seems different than what it came across as originally and I almost feel like this was false advertising. Hope it can be salvaged.

Hollywood doesn't like making a series about real people anymore. If you think back to shows like NYPD Blue, Barney Miller, The Rockford Files, any number of programs that have gone before. The cast included stars as we'd all expect. And usually a good number of supporting actors. And these shows were not cast based on the appearance of actors. This another program that has only attractive people in every single part. In one episode there are defense contractors who all young and very attractive. It's a huge distraction. Look around, at your own life, not everyone in physically fit, and attractive. This show does involve a story line that moves in and out of the world of the rich and famous. But even those people should not all be young and attractive. Somehow they even have bad guys who look like underwear models. If you enjoy watching shows where every single person looks like no-one you'll see in everyday life. This is the show for you. But then you'll have to suspend your disbelief to swallow the story lines they've woven so far. I can't see how they can do more that a season at most. How are they going to come up with even an even slightly believable continuing plot with the same cast of characters, they set in place? Lastly, they resurrected split screen editing. This effect quickly became irritating when it first became popular back in the late 60's and early 1970's when it was first conceived. And they've managed to make it even more annoying by having lines, forming grids, blend across some of the screens.

I missed the pilot, so I started out watching the second episode. Normally I would consider that a problem with a Shondaland production, as they tend to start with a bang, but judging by all the reviews here by people who watched and hated the first episode I'm not sure it was a problem this time.

What I saw was ... fine. The actors are good (glad to see Dirty Sexy Money's Peter Krause again) and the premise of a private detective, the con guy who loves his last mark, Interpol, an ongoing con and a mystery-of-the-week is fine, but I just didn't find any of it that interesting. It's all a little vanilla.