Covert Affairs: When the Levee Breaks

A chemistry teacher named Anton Sabine gets kidnapped by armed thugs in Hong Kong. Shortly thereafter, Ben Mercer saunters up to the front gates of Langley, introduces himself as a former CIA operative, and surrenders, claiming he wants to come in from the cold.

Annie and Joan observe Ben’s interrogation. Ben confirms that he left the CIA two years ago during a mission in Sri Lanka, in which Jai was his handler. Ben’s assignment was to ingratiate himself to a dangerous arms dealer named Felix Artigas. Ben had planned to accomplish this by handing Anton Sabine over to Artigas for the purposes of making chemical weapons. After he fell in love with Annie, Ben was suddenly infused with a more noble spirit and decided he couldn’t ruin Sabine’s life in that manner. Instead, he went rogue and smuggled Sabine to Hong Kong.

Annie tries to grill Jai about his past with Ben. Jai claims he’d love to tell her everything, but the information is classified. (Annie grouses, “The problem with this job is that excuses like that are valid.”) I like how this scene plays out: Annie is enormously (and justly) ticked at Jai for withholding information from her, but she clearly doesn’t view it as a huge personal betrayal: She accepts that keeping secrets from each other is a necessary evil of their job. I’d been faintly worried all season that the Jai-Annie relationship would culminate in a huge, melodramatic scene filled with accusations of betrayal and preying on emotions; the show was smart to avoid this.

Ben talks with Arthur: He claims he’s been eliminating security threats -- like the arms dealer Hasaan Waleed back in the fifth episode -- on his own initiative since leaving the CIA. Now, however, he needs the Agency’s help in rescuing Sabine, who has been captured by Artigas’s goons and taken to Sri Lanka to develop chemical weapons against his will.

Ben’s story checks out, so Arthur decides to send Ben to Colombo, with Annie as his handler. Joan, Jai and Auggie are all horrified at the possible danger to Annie. Auggie equips Annie with a secret GPS tracker, which she places on the braided shell bracelet Ben gave her.

Meanwhile, the CIA’s General Counsel is concerned about an upcoming expose on Arthur that Liza Hearn is threatening to publish. Arthur sends Auggie to sweet-talk Liza into delaying submission of her article for three days to give Arthur time to assemble a proper defense. Auggie somehow manages to persuade Liza to go along with this, which seems journalistically unsound. Liza might be a bit of a softie at heart.

The General Counsel meets secretly with Joan and informs her that Arthur might be forced out of his job if the unflattering article is published. If that happens, Joan will be approached as his replacement, which would make her the highest-ranking woman in the history of the CIA. Well-deserved, too; Joan is a force of unstoppable awesomeness.

Jai visits his evil dad at the lavish Wilcox estate, where they have another of their customary tense, barbed father-son chats. Henry advises Jai to distance himself professionally from Arthur before Arthur gets dragged down in disgrace. Jai asks if Ben was secretly working for Henry at the same time he was supposed to be working with Jai; Henry refuses to give him a direct answer, but it’s clearly the truth.

In Colombo, Ben and Annie meet with one of Ben’s former assets, a Tamil warlord known as Lone Star who has had past dealings with Artigas. Ben and Annie are taken to a temple to see Lone Star, who is in the guise of a Buddhist monk. (In a bit of grotesque product placement, Ben brings him a can of Pringles, plus fifty grand, in exchange for information.) Of Annie, Lone Star says to Ben, “She’s much prettier than your last handler.” This is a polite lie. Annie is a total knockout, but she’s not prettier than Jai. No one is prettier than Jai.

Lone Star confirms that Artigas is forcing Sabine to weaponize sarin gas. Before he can elaborate on this, Lone Star keels over and dies, poisoned by his tea. Armed men converge on the temple; Ben and Annie hop on a convenient nearby motorcycle and zip off to safety.

They end up on the deserted beach where they fell in love two years ago. They sexily eat mangoes and roll around in bed together, and seriously, no matter how many times the show tries to tell me that Annie and Ben’s relationship is magical and special, I’m not buying it. Romantically, these two are kind of a dud couple.

In the morning, Jai arrives on the beach and interrupts their tryst: Ben and Annie missed a scheduled check-in, so Auggie provided Jai with Annie’s GPS coordinates. Jai and Ben snipe at each other awesomely for a while. When Ben points out that Jai’s presence in Sri Lanka hasn’t been sanctioned by the CIA, Jai replies, “Wow, you of all people? Really?” in the most blistering possible way. Ben and Annie together are a snooze, but Ben and Jai? They’re a barrel of drunken monkeys, and already this kinda-dull Sri Lankan jaunt has perked up enormously.

Liza meets with Auggie once again to return some items of clothing he left in her apartment. Auggie cautions Liza to be careful of her mysterious high-placed CIA source. Liza leaves Auggie and gets into a car with… Henry Wilcox! So Henry is the leak. Not a huge surprise -- the suspect list was pretty short, after all, and he’s the closest thing to a clear-cut regular villain that this show has -- but it’s still a fun twist. Best of all, it pretty much guarantees Henry will be around next season, too. Henry tells Liza, “Our next chat may get you that Pulitzer.”

Joan spills the news to Arthur that she’s his likely replacement. In a moment of mutual awesomeness, Arthur urges her to take the job and she flatly refuses, claiming the CIA is better off with both of them in place. She vows to help Arthur fight to retain his position.

Ben ditches Jai and Annie and takes off on his own. However, since Ben and Annie accidentally swapped bracelets after shagging, Auggie traces Ben’s GPS coordinates to a tall building owned by Artigas. As Ben has apparently gone rogue again, Arthur gives Jai permission to kill Ben, if necessary.

Annie and Jai sneak into the building, where they slink around in shadows and scamper up lots of stairs and look extremely cute together; after this episode, I hope some enterprising toy marketer comes out with a line of official Covert Affairs action figures. They spot Ben with Artigas, offering to smuggle Sabine to Indonesia. Annie prevents Jai from shooting Ben; Ben opens fire on Artigas, and a big, messy firefight ensues, with Annie and Jai and Ben all working together to get Sabine up to the rooftop so they can be lifted to safety by helicopter. Ben attacks Artigas with a lead pipe, Annie whacks one bad guy upside the head, Jai tosses another bad guy down an elevator shaft, and Annie throws Artigas off the side of the building before he can kill Ben. Everyone makes it to the roof and scurries for the helicopter… but Ben gets shot twice in the chest. Annie drags Ben onto the chopper and clutches him as they fly away.

Okay! Fun finale, and things are nicely set up for the next season. Ben looks like a goner, but there’s always a chance he’ll pull through, if the show decides to keep his character around for future episodes. There were a few bumps along the way, but that was a pretty strong first season overall; here’s hoping season two builds on the momentum.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Personally, I hope that Ben's dead. We don't need him, his storyline with Annie was boring, and it'll be nice to focus on Annie as just a rookie agent instead of someone who was placed in the CIA because she doinked some dude who was in the CIA before her. Although I have a feeling Ben's fate may rely on how the viewers feel about him and since this is like the only place I go to to talk about CIA, I have no idea what the general fanbase feels about Ben.

I feel like this episode implied that while Auggie is playing Liza she's also playing him a little bit, which (if it's true) I don't mind at all. It'll be nice to see a non-CIA woman not being lead around because of her feelings for some guy (although I do get the feeling that Henry and Liza are doing it... yeah, live with that mental image for a while)

Sidenote: Jai and Ben were totally lover and Jai is, ironically, the jealous type.
Morgan Richter said…
Yeah, apart from the views of the people who comment here, I really have little idea how viewers regard Ben. Just from Henry's conversation with Jai about how Ben is special ("He's extraordinary!"), I'd say the show plans on keeping him around for another season, just so we can find out what Henry and Ben were involved in. But on the other hand... he's not working that well as a character, especially in regard to his relationship with Annie. In fact, even more than the general mild irritation factor of Danielle, I'd say the Annie-Ben romance was the weakest part of the season, just because establishing a believable connection between them was crucial to their motivations, and it fell short.

Also, I think the show did Annie a disservice this episode with Ben's speech about how she inspired him in Sri Lanka to try to lead a more noble life. Annie is awesome and scrappy and fun and resourceful, but there's nothing about frolicking on a beach with her for a couple weeks that should magically lead anyone to decide that Being A Spy Is Wrong. It was a little trite, and it seemed like a cheat.

Still, Ben and Jai were pretty great together this episode, and I'm still interested in finding out more about their past history.

I'm digging Liza. She's got a lot of potential as a character.
Patrick said…
Well none of my predictions came to pass - except for the one about Henry Wilcox being the mole.

There are some parts of this series that really annoy me - for example, the number of times Annie gets saved at the end of an episode by a man with a gun. For a CIA agent - even a rookie one - she should surely be expected to carry a gun at some point.

Danielle and her daughter seem as bad as each other - they expect Annie to organise a class trip on two days notice, even though she's not actually a tour guide, she's responsible for acquisitions and stuff. And even when work takes her to London she's expected to take care of tings for them back home.
Patrick said…
'Tings' has a nice ring.

Anyway, I also hope Ben is dead. The whole Ben storyline was ridiculous. One of the main reasons the CIA recruited Annie was to find Ben. Why? Because two years ago he went rogue and started tracking down bad guys and killing them - bad guys that the CIA were pretty happy to have killed. So why the problem?

There had been hints that Ben had a darker side - especially from Jai - but this was all abandoned, apart from the suggestion that Henry Wilcox had been running him.

Jai was clearly the real hero - always looking out for Annie and doing his best for her.
Alicia said…
My take on Ben -- honestly the "Annie's spirit changed me" excuse sounded bogus, and he was probably becoming increasingly unstable and fed up with his job while being deep undercover. That kind of work is incredibly psychologically tasking. I think he was unhinged much before he met Annie, but maybe she was the last straw. He was also clearly paranoid and we saw him drinking, and he'd been working as what is, when it comes down to it, a vigilante serial killer for the past two years. No mentally stable person can do that sort of thing. I wish they'd gone into his mental state, instead of doing the "Annie's love changed me" cop-out, but maybe the show didn't want to go to that dark place.

I'm really looking forward to season 2. I expect more Henry and Arthur and CIA intrigue, it could be a hell of a ride!
Patrick said…
Does this make sense?

Ben was in Sri Lanka to hand Sabine over to Artigas. But for three weeks he abandons his mission to frolic with Annie. This frolicing leads to a change of heart and he decides to bring Sabine to safety in Hong Kong.

After that, there was nothing stopping him from (a) resigning formally from the CIA and settling down with Annie, or (b) finding Annie and telling her the truth and persuading her to run off with him.

Instead he spent two years tracking down and killing some arms dealers. A bit random.

It wasn't really THAT complicated. He could have told her that he was in the CIA, he wanted to leave, and that he loved her. Oh, and that he was going to have to leave her for a few days to bring a man to safety in Hong Kong.

Why was Jai on the beech again? To persuade Ben not to rescue Sabine, or what? It really doesn't make very much sense.
Morgan Richter said…
There had been hints that Ben had a darker side - especially from Jai - but this was all abandoned, apart from the suggestion that Henry Wilcox had been running him.

Which is a shame, because those hints were the most interesting thing about Ben, and the only possible explanation as to why the CIA was going to such great lengths to bring him in, what with recruiting Annie and all. I wanted there to be more to the whole story of Ben and Annie.

If Ben is around next season, I hope they reveal that he was involved with some pretty dark, awful, soul-crushing stuff with Henry.

I think this episode showed pretty clearly that Jai is, and always has been, acting in Annie's best interests.

Alicia, I like your take on Ben's deteriorating mental state a lot. It sounds very plausible with what we've seen and the nature of his job, and it adds a nice layer of gravitas to his plotline. And it's certainly more convincing and effective than "Annie's love changed me." I love the idea of Ben as a genuine rogue agent -- someone who's unpredictable and poses a genuine threat to the CIA if they're unable to bring him in. Too bad they steered away from that course.

Patrick -- I suspect that when they wrote the pilot, they hadn't quite worked out Ben's whole backstory, because you're right, it doesn't make sense. Definitely feels like some missed potential there. Unless, as Alicia theorized, Ben had some kind of dangerous mental break, which led him to spend two years hunting down and killing arms dealers on his own. That would've been a much more satisfying explanation of Ben's behavior, had they chosen to go that route.
Anonymous said…
Why was Jai on the beech again? To persuade Ben not to rescue Sabine, or what? It really doesn't make very much sense.

To persuade him not to abort the undercover mission, I'd assume.

I don't really know what I want to happen to Ben. That he is dead or survives in a coma or seriously injured seem the only options that really make sense. He's not going to join the main cast, or retire quietly. But I don't think that his presence in the first season has been overbearing. I may not be a fan, but he adequately fulfilled a function in the story, and that's enough. I never got the impression I was supposed to love him, or root for him and Annie to live happily ever after.
And anybody who travels the world to be a renegade assassin is obviously at least a little insane. I'm with Alicia on this one: if this wasn't a USA show, Ben would be an alcoholic with psycchopathic tendencies. ;) He snapped and went rogue, and I don't expect the reason for snapping to be perfectly logical, because this isn't about logic...


I am curious how the events will affect the relationship between Annie and Jai. Also, what side Jai will take in the Henry/Arthur powerplay. Or how much Joan and Arthur even trust him in this.

Auggie's warning for Liza makes me suspect that Henry will, at some point, attempt to get rid of her...

... :3 And I am really kind of fond of all of them, I realize. <3
Morgan Richter said…
I think this first season hit right at that USA programming target level (White Collar, Burn Notice) -- good and satisfying, though not outstanding, and maybe a little lazy, if I'm feeling especially critical. I'd like them to aim a little higher... but that's not really their priority, and they've found a formula that works well for them.

I would prefer to have Ben survive, if only for the chance to delve deeper into his past work with the CIA and whatever he was into with Henry (though I suppose that could be explored even if he dies). Ben reminds me of Kate on White Collar: an interesting idea for a character, who probably worked better on paper than in execution. Both Kate and Ben served a similar function -- to give the protagonist some layers to his or her backstory and provide the show with an ongoing mystery. White Collar ditched Kate after the first season but kept the mystery associated with her; it'll be interesting to see if Covert Affairs follows suit.

Also, what side Jai will take in the Henry/Arthur powerplay.

I'm hoping Jai opts for Team Anyone But My Evil Dad, but it's hard to know where his loyalties would fall. The Jai-Henry scene in this episode was a standout: that's one complex, unsettling relationship those two have.
Anonymous said…
I am glad I am not the only one to find the Ben/Annie romance sloppy and unrealistic...I thought I was a soulless, cynic person, because I can`t buy that 2 weeks of shagging are enough for a life changing.

I am confused how they handled Annie/Jai flirt. I mean, first she brought the guy at home, to meet her kin- and in that, I guess, there was a lot of "Take a look, bitch!" aimed to her big sister.- After that, she pretty much ignore him. And she seems to fall again on the guy that 1)left her alone in a foreign country, after she deleted her air ticket 2)When he reappers, out of the blue, asks a favour as first thing. And put her very life on the line, by sending her to the arm dealer boat.
A nice Charming Prince, uh?

Regarding Annie, she`s funny...but I wish she could act a more like her age, instead of a little girl. Even her collegues seem to have a tendency to doll her. It gets my nerve, really. Who dolls you on a workplace because you`re so pretty and petite?
Anonymous said…
Ben reminds me of Kate on White Collar: an interesting idea for a character, who probably worked better on paper than in execution. Both Kate and Ben served a similar function -- to give the protagonist some layers to his or her backstory and provide the show with an ongoing mystery. White Collar ditched Kate after the first season but kept the mystery associated with her; it'll be interesting to see if Covert Affairs follows suit.

Yes, the Ben/Kate parallel! I'm not entirely sure why, but I think CA generally did a better job integrating Ben into the world than WC did with Kate. But that may have to do with the show's different way of handling their supporting cast. No one but Neal had an emotional past with Kate, but Ben is connected both to Annie and to Jai in meaningful ways.
And Ben actually showed up on screen, did action, and even if I don't think he's the best character the show ever had, he's more than the cypher that Kate remained until her death.

Kate was a MacGuffin who was replaced with an inanimae MacGuffin after her death, the Music Box. And one of the reasons why nothing of that plot interested me is because Fowler was a boring and flat villain.

If CA goes the route of revealing a Henry/Ben past, Henry Wilcox is a charismatic guy who is given fantastic lines by the writers, which makes me suspect they love him.


I agree that Ben does not have to be alive for something like that to happen, especially since Henry will remain as an antagonist and if he has any dirty laundry, sooner or later we will have it revealed. And if it came out that he used and manipulated a rogue CIA agent (or whatever!) who eventually got killed, he definitely has some more blood on his hands. Certainly more dramatic than "... but Ben is fine now and lives happily on his mother's farm, breeding chicken". ;)
Morgan Richter said…
Henry Wilcox is a standout character. He has great, juicy lines, and Gregory Itzin is doing an outstanding job of being dastardly and conniving. So you're right: he might be enough to keep the Ben mystery going through a second season even if Ben dies (whereas Fowler and the music box aren't enough to sustain the Kate mystery on White Collar. WC is one of the rare shows where the standalone episodes tend to be stronger than the ones that focus on the overarching plot).

Switching gears a bit... I've been snooping around on various message boards/comment threads/random Twitter accounts about the show, just to get a general sense of how viewers feel about Ben, or about Jai, or about the show in general. This is obviously a sweeping generalization based upon some very unscientifically sound data... but (with plenty of exceptions) no one seems to be all that into Ben. As a commenter on a TV by the Numbers article about the ratings put it, re: Ben: "If they'd ratchet up his being a rogue and make him involved in some hyper-conspiracy or something, he might be useful, but basically he's not terribly important, just an agent off the reservation. And yes, a relationship with Augie or the other guy would make more sense, especially since the other guy's father appears to be the leak to the reporter. The other guy appears to be a better actor, too."

(I feel like baking this guy cookies or something for randomly throwing in a nice word about Sendhil's acting. The wounds of Heroes, they heal slowly.)
Patrick said…
'The other guy'! Who is this writer, and why have they not been obsessively following his great work!

Not being in love with Sendhil I think I can be fairly objective here. I thought he did a superb job as the season went on. In the early episodes it wasn't clear what his role was, or if he'd have a role, but as the season came to an end he really nailed it.
Morgan Richter said…
Not being in love with Sendhil I think I can be fairly objective here. I thought he did a superb job as the season went on.

Heh. Good to hear, Patrick. I think two huge tipping points for Jai this season were: 1) the introduction of Henry Wilcox, and 2) the revelation that Jai was in Sri Lanka with Ben. All of a sudden he was not only deeply embedded into the show, but he was also given all these interesting dimensions. You don't grow up as Henry Wilcox's kid without sustaining some weird emotional damage along the way.

He's a good character on the page, and I think Sendhil has made some smart choices along the way. It seemed clear in this episode that Jai really does care about Annie, whether as a friend or something more, and he doesn't want to see her placed in danger for reasons that have nothing to do with his assignment. It also seems like he feels personally betrayed by Ben leaving the CIA -- that's interesting. And his scenes with Henry have consistently been among the best in the series.

'The other guy'!

Just checked my keywords: someone found this site yesterday while searching for "Covert Affairs Zen Ramamurthy," which... close, but not quite it. Still, I think "Zen Ramamurthy" is a pretty snazzy name.
Anonymous said…
"Covert Affairs Zen Ramamurthy,"

I think the only reasonable explanation for that is that this person heard the name "Sendhil" and thought it was "Zendhil" then decided to lop off the last four letters.

Since we're all thinking that it's likely Gregory Itzin is going to go from guest star to reoccuring antagonist next season, what do you think the chances are of Peter Gallagher becoming part of the main cast? I know someone said earlier on this blog that CA probably can't afford him, but since the show is now a success I feel like it might have more funds for the next season. Especially since it seems like Henry just might continue to try to push Arthur out of his job. It'd be a nice reoccuring storyline.
Morgan Richter said…
I think the only reasonable explanation for that is that this person heard the name "Sendhil" and thought it was "Zendhil" then decided to lop off the last four letters.

Yeah. In any case, it brought them here, where presumably they were then able to work out the correct spelling.

Zen Ramamurthy. I like it. I've also seen a few confused people spell it "Sendhil Ramamurphy", which is kind of cute. Vaguely Irish. I think Sendhil even made a joke about that somewhere. Heroes episode commentary, maybe?

I'd love to have both Itzin and Gallagher on as permanent cast members next season. They're both adding a lot to the show.
Anonymous said…
Wordpress ate my comment earlier :(

What I wanted to say is that I'm also thrilled to see Sendhil get praise, even from people who say they did not like him on Heroes. The last two years of Heroes did not do Sendhil any favours, I guess.


WC is one of the rare shows where the standalone episodes tend to be stronger than the ones that focus on the overarching plot).

Is that so rare? :) I feel the opposite was true for X-Files, most of the time.
But it's no huge surprise for White Collar, because its mean appeal seems to lie in the friendly bickering between Neal and Peter, and you don't need a main plot for that. Covert Affairs, on the other hand, has its main appeal (imho) in the complicated relationships between the characters, so it makes sense that the show would be at its best when these issues get dragged out and played with.

(And yet I see people in the TVBTN comment section constantly refer to WC as the better show and brush off CA as comparatively light, purely fluffy popcorn. If White Collar had the omnipresent intrigue of Covert Affairs, it could be a really excellent show.)
Morgan Richter said…
If White Collar had the omnipresent intrigue of Covert Affairs, it could be a really excellent show.

The Kate plot on WC really drew me in at first -- it strongly reminded me of Spike's search for Julia in Cowboy Bebop, and that's a good thing -- but it never quite lived up to potential, and now I'm just not that interested in any of it: Kate's murder, Fowler, the music box... If they'd managed to create a compelling mystery about Kate, I think it would have raised WC above what it currently is: a perfectly enjoyable and fluffy show showcasing two immensely likable and charismatic leads.

What I wanted to say is that I'm also thrilled to see Sendhil get praise, even from people who say they did not like him on Heroes. The last two years of Heroes did not do Sendhil any favours, I guess.

Lord, no, though much of the Mohinder hate started well before that. First-season Mohinder is and always will be one of my all-time favorite characters, but there was plenty of viewer hostility toward him from the start. So Sendhil has a bit of an uphill battle to earn goodwill, but it's nice to see clear signs of progress on that front.
Anonymous said…
I finally got to see episode 9!-streaming is so slow.

So far my perplexity is: how come the Turkish killer, at 36, is treated in the show like a beautiful, mature woman and Annie and Viv, barely five years younger, are the bubbly girls?

Maybe it`s sounds stupid, but I do not understand why Annie if treated like a young, little girl..at 28, I should say she is mature enough, isn`t it?
Morgan Richter said…
Veronica, I agree that Annie has a very girlish personality. It doesn't bother me much, because we've seen that she's resourceful and tough and quick-thinking in bad situations, even while she's sometimes overly giggly and spazzy. Auggie sometimes strikes me as immature for his age as well -- I'm thinking of the scene in "In the Light" where he's cheerfully trash-talking and gossiping about Henry Wilcox to Annie while standing right in the middle of the DPD; it wasn't a terribly smart thing for him to do within the walls of Langley, and he's lucky it was only Jai who overheard him. That's probably why, while I like both Annie and Auggie just fine, I'm less interested in them (or in Danielle, who makes Annie seem mature by comparison) than I am in the more grown-up characters (Joan, Arthur, Jai, Henry).

Then again, I'm old and crabby, and youthful joie de vivre only goes so far with me. :-)
Anonymous said…
Morgan, you are young and beautiful!:-)

I have nothing against joie de vivre, but I am nearly Annie`s age, and if someone would treat me like a bubbly, little girl, I would kick his/her ass!
Anonymous said…
I finally managed to watch the finale! You've all pretty much covered everything I was thinking. Nice to see so many of us are on the same page.

With regards to the "what do others think of Ben?" question, I can say that at one of the other boards I check in on once in awhile, they see him the way we do. He's not all that that interesting and him and Annie are pretty dull. I'm also bummed that the writers seemed to have ditched the hinted at "Ben has a dark past" angle to go for the "Ben fell in love in two seconds and it changed him forever" drek.

The only reason I'd be okay with Ben surviving next season is if we get a better (re: interesting) backstory on him...and Jai. I'm with Morgan -- they're sniping at each other was way entertaining and they have way more chemistry than Ben/Annie (or even Annie/Jai). I'm not even talking slash...The actors (Bailey and Ramamurthy) and the characters just seem to be a really good mix and that deserves to be explored.

Henry Wilcox is an awesome asshole. Full stop.

The show (and actor) has done a good job with Joan that I actually believed she'd be considered for Arthur's job...and she'd be great at it. I dig that when she told him, he was very supportive of her and in turn she was all "we're in this together." I remember not being thrilled with their relationship in the first episoe, but as the season went on they've become a couple I quite like (getting close to the way I dig Peter and Elizabeth on WC...btw I agree that WC does really great standalone episodes).

As a Sendhil fan and someone who had to survive four years of Sendhil bashing due to "Heroes", I think he showed quite a bit of growth as the the season went on...I think he really started to come into his own with the character (maybe as the character started to take on more of a personality). I don't want him in a romantic relationship with Annie, but I'm cool with their friendship (and the innocent flirting). I'm more interested in his relationship with dear old dad and his obviously tense but workable past with Joan and Arthur...and even his snarkiness with Auggie.

Still don't care about Danielle and the family...which is too bad because I've really liked the actress on other things. Here it's a total waste.

I'm looking forward to season 2!

So Morgan, what fall shows are you going to be covering?
Morgan Richter said…
Morgan, you are young and beautiful!:-)

Thanks, Veronica.

I'm also bummed that the writers seemed to have ditched the hinted at "Ben has a dark past" angle to go for the "Ben fell in love in two seconds and it changed him forever" drek.

Yeah, that's disappointing. I'm still optimistic that Ben's dark past might be explored next season, if they work the Henry Wilcox angle. The more Henry, the better.

I dig that when she told him, he was very supportive of her and in turn she was all "we're in this together."

That was great, and it spoke well of both Joan and Arthur. Peter and Elizabeth on WC are maybe my single favorite married couple on TV (they have a healthy relationship of equals, they're both smart and fun, and they're obviously crazy in love with each other). If Joan and Arthur can aspire to that level, I'd be thrilled.

So Morgan, what fall shows are you going to be covering?

Darned good question. I'm in the middle of some rough personal stuff right now, and it's going to take me a while to find equilibrium. Posts are probably going to be in short supply for some time.

Do any of the new fall shows look good? I'm going to try to take a look at the Hawaii Five-O remake (looks awful, but I like Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park) and Undercovers, but I don't really have high expectations for either. And I can't help thinking NBC's highly-promoted The Event looks like FlashForward 2.0, which is not a good thing.
Anonymous said…
I thought "Hawaii Five-O" was fun. I really like Scott Caan in the role.

"The Event" was...well...yeah. I didn't care too much for it, but am willing to tune into the next episode to see if it keeps my interest. Pilots tend not to work for me (with a few exceptions here and there) so I try to give a new show I'm sort of interested in a few episodes to make a first impression. With that said, I was bored for most of "The Event" and the parts that reminded me of "Flashforward" didn't help.

I'm checking out "Undercovers" tonight. Hopefully it will be entertaining.
Morgan Richter said…
I'm checking out "Undercovers" tonight. Hopefully it will be entertaining.

Undercovers looks like it has sexy people being sexy, at the very least. For me, that's half the battle.

Haven't seen Hawaii Five-0 or The Event yet. Which probably gives you some indication of my enthusiasm level for both. Good to hear that Hawaii Five-0 is fun. The ad campaign for it has blitzed Los Angeles -- billboards, banners, shrink-wrapped buses. The bus shelter on Fairfax outside CBS Television City plays the theme song on little tinny electronic speakers. Total overkill, but I kind of love it.