Intelligence TV Review

Intelligence TV Review

By Rebecca Lane

The Show: Intelligence

Where: CBS

When: Mondays 10/9c

REVIEW

I was pleasantly surprised by this show. I had been told by a friend that she couldn’t get past the first fifteen minutes. However, as luck would have it, the show improves quite markedly after that. I was just looking forward to finally seeing Josh Holloway on screen again, but there was much more to it than just a hunky guy fighting crime. I was even inspired to go ahead and watch the second episode.

Intelligence is about Gabriel, played by actor Josh Holloway, a high-tech intelligence operative. He was formerly in the army and served several tours in Iraq, so he’s pretty badass all by himself, able to handle pretty much any situation with some handy fighting moves. Then there is the company Cybercom, who basically has it’s hands deep into the computer industry, making the most realistic and newest artificial intelligence known to man. They decide, however, to turn the tables on AI technology. Instead of trying to make more lifelike robots, they experiment with putting a computer into a human. This brings us to Gabriel who has had a chip implanted in his head to give him access to the entire global information grid.  He can hack his way into any program, past any firewalls, has wifi, can get into the internet, as well as access to telephone and satellite data. Think of a more serious Chuck without the comedic relief. Cybercom decides that Gabriel is s little too rambunctious on his own, so they hire him a handler and body guard, Riley Neal, played by Once Upon a Time’s Meghan Ory. The two handle different top-secret cases each week, taking names and kicking butt.

The show is lucky in its cast, as both Holloway and Ory are talented actors. Holloway plays the bad boy agent with a chip on his shoulder to a tea. He’s almost, but not quite, channeling his character from LOST. I enjoyed his performance immensely. Meghan Ory also does the show justice, not acting too much like the typical kickass female that we see in every show these days. She actually has a personality and a past that makes you want to keep watching. I’m really interested to see where the show’s writers go with her character in particular.

You’ve also got the possible romantic angle with the male agent working with a female. I’m wondering where they will go with this. Especially because there is also a third angle to this relationship as Gabriel is looking for his wife, a former fellow operative who was lost and presumed dead in a case years ago. So, it will be interesting to see how they handle this triangle, if indeed it even is one. Only time will tell.

The whole cyber man angle aside, the show is otherwise pretty much like your typical cop or special agent show. They get a case each week, investigate it, and get the bad guys. I’m hoping that the show won’t be completely procedural and will have some type of overarching storyline. There are plenty of avenues they could travel down in terms of creating a deeper story. Judging from the first episode, it looks like it will be partly procedural but that they could definitely also focus on a larger storyline as well.

Only a few things really caught my attention, and made me want to turn away from the screen for a minute. There are a few moments when the dialogue made me cringe, but not too many, and the acting of Holloway and Ory helped to pull through it. Thankfully, they helped to tone down the cheese factor. While the show is a bit like Chuck, it definitely has it’s own agenda and is actually based on a totally separate book so I will choose to look past the similarities.

Overall Impression

I think the concept for the show is interesting even if it’s not the first time it’s been done. Intelligence is not exactly giving us anything incredibly new, but the cast makes you look past that and want to watch more. More character development needs to be done, and getting rid of the corny moments would be nice, but hey, it’s only the first episode. If nothing else, I would check it out because it’s the first thing Josh Holloway has been in since LOST. The man can act, so let’s give him a chance to woo us once again.

Overall Rating

“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

What did you think of Intelligence? Sound off below…

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