While many film and television viewers like escapist comedies and non-strop action thrillers, I have a weakness for suspense with intricate plots. Sure, I don't mind the occasional chase, but I like them paired with puzzle pieces which are gradually woven together. Only by the end do we see not only how the pieces fit together but the entire picture. Hopefully, in the best films in this genre, each piece of the puzzle is offered but the characters along with the audience can't make the connections initially. They need more puzzle pieces for the mosaic to take shape. Part of the fun is for the audience to discover the pieces and ultimately the entire puzzle as the characters do so.
In this first installment of "Dig", USA network's new suspense-espionage thriller series, we have puzzle pieces but we don't have the full picture yet. The main action takes place in Jerusalem with a few inter-spliced scenes in a compound in New Mexico. The pieces so far: an antiquities dealer arrested for murder, a member of the police who has retrieved some kind of ancient artifact, possibly used with the garb of a high priest from ancient times, the murder of a young woman who is an intern in an archaeological dig near the temple mount in Jerusalem.
Peter Connelly (Jason Isaacs) is an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem. It's not exactly clear why he's there, but he's part of criminal investigations in the city regarded as one of the holiest places on Earth by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. He befriends a young woman at an evening vigil who takes him into an underground archaeological excavation. She tells him she's an intern at this excavation being overseen by an esteemed archaeologist-historian professor. She tells Connelly the site may hold the secrets of the Ark of the Covenant, the large ornate chest which, according to Jewish legend, held the original stone tablets of the 10 commandments which God bequeathed to Moses who in turn bestowed upon the Israelites. The Ark also supposedly contained artifacts associated with the Jewish people, such as Aaron's rod which, like Moses' rod, wielded magical powers. When the Babylonians conquered the Israelites by ransacking Jerusalem and destroying their temple in the 6th century BCE, the Ark disappeared. (Think of the 1980's hit "Raiders of the Lost Ark".) The following day after his trip to the excavation, Connelly enters his investigative offices and learns a woman has been murdered. When he sees the reports and pictures, he realizes it's the woman he met who gave him a tour of the excavation site. This is the first puzzle piece.
Simultaneously, a fellow Israeli investigator has arrested an antiquities dealer. He confiscated some kind of ancient artifact which has the shape of an abacus with strangely ornate stars. Apparently, they were used on the front of the garb of an ancient high priest, probably for some kind of ritual. This is puzzle pieces number two and three.
The last is the most enigmatic of them all. At a compound in New Mexico, a young boy of 11 or 12 is being held there without other children. We don't understand who these adults are, except they are caring for and in some ways imprisoning this boy. We are told that the boy thought he was waiting for his parents, but now his self-appointed guardians have told him his parents are dead and they are in his charge. And we learn that the head of this compound is called "Pastor". Is this some kind of radical religious cult? This is puzzle piece number four.
While I found the first few minutes dragged slightly, once Connelly meets the young woman, the story starts to pick up. Could be a compelling series. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait every week to get the next installment. Almost wish I could simply buy the whole first season on DVD instead of waiting many weeks to see all the installments. I hope the grand denouement lives up to this very good beginning.
