Undercovers

I enjoyed this new show immensely. It's nice to see two, intelligent characters who sincerely love each other. They enjoy their work and work hard, have a sense of commitment to marriage (wow!), and show loyalty to friends and country.

This new couple is fun to watch and Mr. Kodjoe is GREAT to look at (Gugu is pretty too).

Most TV isn't fun to watch anymore, i.e., cruel "reality" shows, twisted comedies with sick/demented characters, etc.

Watching Undercovers was fun and exciting. It's nice to see characters that have traits one would actually aspire to cultivating in oneself. Looking forward to more!

I like action TV shows, I like throwback shows and I like Abrams, but Undercovers is dreadfully dull.

The show has very high production values, but the recycled plots do nothing to cash in on them. Locales and set pieces are interchangeable as the by-the-numbers plots unfold. There's nary an original idea to be found.

This might not be such a problem if we at least had good characters, but Undercovers is lacking there, too. We get only the most cursory back story for our leads. They seem to exist only in the moment. Even what we know about their past doesn't seem to jibe with what we see. First, they show no indication that they were ever highly trained operatives. They carry themselves like second-year agents, not the top spies who had to be reactivated because no one else could handle the job. Also, Samantha had a relationship with two characters on the show, but she has absolutely no chemistry with either of them.

And that is the nail in the coffin for the show. All the other weaknesses of the show could be said about a similar cheesy mystery show from the 70s/80s: Hart to Hart. But the two leads in that show had chemistry, and it carried the entire series. The only thing that carries Undercovers is Gerald McRaney...but his appearances are too brief to do anything more than remind us of what this show could have been.

"Undercovers" is first and foremost entertainment. The program is framed in such a way as to present a myriad of possible directions. Each character has so much potential for back story and fore shadowing. I was impressed with the casting of veteran performers and fresh new talent. Much is made of the degree of "Blackness" of the principal characters. I believe the creators of the show made and brilliant move in casting. The characters have the flexibility in appearance to have a viable presence in the environments of the script. I enjoy the pace of the show and the fact that the couple is in a loving and supportive relationship. I look forward to potential situations ahead and I will be sure to GuGu every Wednesday.

This show was pretty good. Never found its audience.

(Note: this review is of the pilot episode only.)

Zzzz. Was there anything in the pilot we hadn't seen dozens of times before? Has JJ Abrams been watching too many 1970s TV reruns? The plot is old, the main characters are more glitzy than interesting, the dialog is boring....

I think we're supposed to give the show high marks because the main characters are a black married couple, which is on the original side. But that's not enough. They have no deeper motivation than they miss the excitement of being heroes. But a good hero has vulnerabilities and obstacles. He/she is not perfect. He has a back story, often involving the loss of a family member, that makes him sympathetic to the viewer. I can only hope that will show up in the episodes after the pilot, because, right now, the best thing that could happen to the show is if Boris gets killed and Gugu has to carry on without him.

And what's with the characters names? Samantha Bloom was a character on VR.5,whose sister and star was named Sydney. JJ Abrams already had a series with a Sydney, so now...? Maybe halfway through the series, Abrams will reveal this is all happening in virtual reality or a parallel universe. Now that would be interesting. :-)