2016 caper show, 10 episodes. Alice Vaughan, private investigator,
discovers her fiancé was a con artist stealing from her firm. But in
spite of all that, neither of them is quite ready to break things off.
This is a Shonda Rhimes show, which means that a certain amount
of generic network TV crap has already been removed: characters'
strengths are largely independent of, though flavoured by, what sex
they are, and there's an array of skin colours and sexual
orientations. That in itself is worth a fair bit. Beyond it things get
a little weaker, as the show tries to do a little too much; it's going
for Thin Man-style romantic fencing between the leads, but at the
same time it's trying to be a caper show, or (too often) two separate
caper shows.
A typical mid-season episode sees Vaughan's firm investigating a case
of the week, while the crooks continue one of their ongoing plots;
Vaughan, although a competent investigator in her own right, needs
something from the man we eventually discover is called Ben to solve
the case, and manages to interfere with the criminal scheme too, while
managing to continue the relationship. It starts to feel rote at
times, but mostly it works.
The axis of the show, though, is Vaughn, and it's interesting to note
that her character was substantially revised after the original pilot:
she was originally intended to be a mousy buttoned-down woman for whom
the romance with Ben was the one trace of excitement in her life, but
instead she was pepped up and made much more of an active presence;
the show is her story more than it is Ben's. I applaud this decision;
I really don't think it would have worked with her as a passive
partner.
The cast is generally competent, let down slightly by John Simm
playing the same character he always plays, but Sonya Walger as Ben's
partner in crime is particularly worth watching. The show's tone
wanders between light-hearted and deadly serious, and it doesn't
always manage the transitions well (just like its trademark
urban-landscape dissolves), but when it gets things right it does it
very well. Shame it's such a mixed bag; overall I found it just barely
worth watching.
The series was renewed for a second season.
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