Couch Potato: Business and pleasure
By Casey Gillis on Jul. 07, 2010
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In the opening moments of USA’s “Covert Affairs,” CIA trainee Annie Walker is taking a polygraph test.
When the administrator asked if she’d be able to keep her work and professional lives separate, I had to laugh.
Yeah right! We all know fictional spies regularly mix business and pleasure (and, often, pain and lots of drama). That’s why we love them.
Annie, played by Piper Perabo (“Coyote Ugly”), is a spy in the tradition of Sarah Walker on “Chuck” or Sydney Bristow on “Alias” (Perabo even bears more than a passing resemblance to the star of that ABC series, Jennifer Garner).
She looks sweet and innocent, but can kick some serious bad guy butt when the situation calls for it.
In the opener, which premieres at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Annie is pulled from CIA training for actual fieldwork, using her extensive language skills on a case involving a Russian assassin.
It’s alternately fun and stressful to watch Annie navigate the spy life, whether she’s out on dangerous missions or back in the office, where she reports to an icy boss (Kari Matchett, “Invasion”), who has suspicions that her husband, and fellow CIA bigwig, Arthur (Peter Gallagher, “The O.C.”) is cheating on her.
“You’ll find this is a weird place to work,” fast friend Auggie (Christopher Gorham, “Ugly Betty”), a blind techie, tells her. “Polygraphs every year. No cell phones allowed inside the building. No dating foreigners. In fact, the CIA highly encourages dating within the agency. Keeps things in the circle of trust. It’s like a Club Med without the free drinks.”
Auggie, and now Annie, work for the Domestic Protection Division, which deals with global threats that find their way into the United States.
I was a little confused as to why the agency would put a trainee into the field, but that question was answered by the end of the episode. It’s a plot twist that sets up what I think will be a compelling, season-long mystery.
USA — the home of great shows like “Burn Notice” and “Psych” — has done it again with this smart series.
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