Lose a couple, gain a combo. The Dick Wolf "FBIverse" may have shrunk by two shows – FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted – last year, but it has bounced back by one ... and a half?
While CIA has only one agency in its name, the new series' premise involves a "fusion cell" of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency.
Why? Well, the FBI element is needed to allow the CIA to operate on American soil, to investigate increasing domestic threats.
Yeah, they could have called this inter-agency combination Spooks & Suits, but that would have been kind of derivative of other (more established) series. And "FIABCI" was taken, I believe.
This particular team is a little lean initially (any expansion being contingent upon the first season's performance): it's just loose-cannon CIA case officer Colin Glass (Tom Ellis, Lucifer) and straight-arrow secondee FBI special agent William "Bill" Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss, Chicago Med), plus CIA analyst Gina Gosian (Natalee Linez) as their "person in the chair".
Overseeing this little outfit is CIA New York station deputy chief Nikki Reynard (Necar Zadegan, who's just about everywhere these days from The Rookie to Mayor Of Kingstown).
After a number of behind-the-scenes and casting changes, CIA now has the services of veteran One Chicago and FBIverse showrunner Mike Weiss, which means we can expect the familiar hallmarks of those franchises.
Just like with the Blue Bloods spin-off Boston Blue, that can be a good thing for those not looking for much more than one-and-done procedural tales each week, with a couple of running subplots that resolve (or explode) further down the road.
Anyone fancying a meatier, headier ride along the lines of Homeland or The Agency (also, FINALLY, unspooling weekly on our screens) may not find their particular thirsts slaked by this one, however.
In CIA's case, the flimsy thread connecting each episode involves a suspected mole (What, again? Cue the relevant Austin Powers In Goldmember flashback.) in the agency's ranks.
Bill is tasked by his boss – Jubal Valentine (Jeremy Sisto), crossing over from the flagship FBI show with several other familiar faces – with unmasking this mole, while keeping his agenda secret from his new colleagues.
The early episodes have mostly revolved around the oil-and-water chemistry of Colin and Bill as their personalities, investigative styles, ideologies, backstories and dressing clash in the field.
Also, there's the whole facial hair thing, with Ellis allowed to keep his Lucifer stubble but Gehlfuss having to go clean-shaven after eight seasons of sporting Dr Will Halstead's designer face fuzz.
It takes a bit of getting used to, but otherwise, it might have left Constant Viewers (apologies to Stephen King) of the Wolf Entertainment machine initially disoriented seeing the good "doctor" whipping out a gun and chasing down domestic terrorists.
The first five instalments have been watchable mainly because of the growing, grudging respect and burgeoning chemistry between Ellis and Gehlfuss, even if the stories haven't exactly set screens on fire.
Of the lot, only Nikki's third-episode Hong Kong sojourn with its shady prisoner exchanges and intimations of torture, and the following week's frantic race to dismantle an international baby-for-sale racket, have approached the kind of intensity and stakes capable of lifting this one above the median.
Until the show hits its stride, just think of it as a fuss-free, and partly fuzz-free, way to pass the time.
New episodes of CIA air every Wednesday on AXN (Astro Ch 701/Unifi TV Ch 453).
Summary:
The devil and the doc
