The Enemy Within - General Discussion

[Happy Harpy]

3 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Even the characters not written very well so far are played by competent actors who are adding some human moments in there.

That's what I found most frustrating, because it's obvious that some actors try and they're given next to nothing. I can't count the shows I watched longer than I should have because the character moments made up for sucky plots.

I remembered that a few weeks ago, a TV critic/journalist ranted quite violently about a soon to premiere show that didn't send him the screener for episode 2, but only 1 and 3. It was speculated that TEW was the show in question, and now that I've seen 1x02, it would make sense that it was "forgotten". I hope it means that 1x02 was a misstep, they're aware of it, and the next one will be better.

Edited March 6, 2019 by Happy Harpy

[Loandbehold]

I like both JC and MC, so I'm in for now. I liked how Erica used the metal tray to break her tooth so she could use the dentist's office for the lead blanket and other tools to escape. Even if metal trays wouldn't be used for people in the FBI home office cell, it was something I hadn't seen before.

But, as many have said, there have certainly been a lot of cliches used so far. Add to that Raza Jaffrey's character, who is the best interrogator in the FBI. We know this b/c we've been told it 62 times. Of course, we haven't seen him actually get information from a subject yet, but just knowing that if anybody can, he's the one to do it, makes me feel safer.

New drinking game: Every time someone gives Erica the side-eye, drink a beer. Mentioning how the team shouldn't be working w/ Erica, do a shot. Erica reminding Will that he shouldn't trust her or she wouldn't trust him if the roles were reversed, drink an entire bottle of wine.

[MissLucas]

1 hour ago, Loandbehold said:

New drinking game: Every time someone gives Erica the side-eye, drink a beer. Mentioning how the team shouldn't be working w/ Erica, do a shot. Erica reminding Will that he shouldn't trust her or she wouldn't trust him if the roles were reversed, drink an entire bottle of wine.

Every time dead fiancée is mentioned, drink a glass of water (trying to save lives and livers here).

[alvajon]

On 3/5/2019 at 6:50 AM, preeya said:

ITA. Too much repetition of #1. How much more will we have to listen to "you can't really be using Carpenter" "you can't trust Carpenter" "Carpenter is a traitor" "everyone hates Carpenter." We get it.  And the actions of the Cruz character are so ridiculous. How long will it be before the lights go on and she's suspected of "someone on the inside?"

I agree--Blindspot is even better than this.  Even more, I’ve been watching reruns of “Prison Break”--now those writers knew what they were doing.  Truly, never, ever a dull moment.  

[BaskingsharkGTX]

Man, I'm so torn on this. On the one hand, I like that it goes beyond being a procedural. On the other, this ep was kind of... flat. And on another, I love love love JCarp. She has great charisma, she is a great actress, she has such an interesting face and she deserves to head her own show, but this woman she plays is The Smartest Person In The Room World and it's just... stupidly OTT. It worked on Blacklist because Reddington is a psychopath with a massive past in crime. It feels like she should be more than what she was. They introduced her as "an amazing code-breaker" but she's also an amazing escape artist, finder-of-stuff-in-a-packed-out-storage-unit, reader of people's behavior, deducer of facial expressions and leaper-of-logic. Yet she hasn't even thought that the CIA analyst might be Tal's asset which is kinda obvious (when she alerted the guy Morris Chestnut shot off the fire escape by text, didn't they check his phone and see who he'd been in contact with?) She couldn't figure out a smart way to get her daughter out of his clutches either and resorted to giving up her operatives pretty quickly.

I'll probably stick around a bit longer though as there's little else to watch at the moment. I also feel like there's kinda too many secondary characters.

Edited March 7, 2019 by BaskingsharkGTX

[tennisgurl]

12 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

New drinking game: Every time someone gives Erica the side-eye, drink a beer. Mentioning how the team shouldn't be working w/ Erica, do a shot. Erica reminding Will that he shouldn't trust her or she wouldn't trust him if the roles were reversed, drink an entire bottle of wine.

Ohhhh, how about a drink whenever the word "daughter" is mentioned? This sounds fun!

[MissLucas]

7 hours ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

but this woman she plays is The Smartest Person In The Room World and it's just... stupidly OTT. It worked on Blacklist because Reddington is a psychopath with a massive past in crime. It feels like she should be more than what she was. They introduced her as "an amazing code-breaker" but she's also an amazing escape artist, finder-of-stuff-in-a-packed-out-storage-unit, reader of people's behavior, deducer of facial expressions and leaper-of-logic. Yet she hasn't even thought that the CIA analyst might be Tal's asset which is kinda obvious (when she alerted the guy Morris Chestnut shot off the fire escape by text, didn't they check his phone and see who he'd been in contact with?) She couldn't figure out a smart way to get her daughter out of his clutches either and resorted to giving up her operatives pretty quickly.

All of this - either there's a whole lot more to her backstory that we haven't been told yet or the premise of this show is as sturdy as a house of cards.

Also: the big bad wolf aka Vassily Tal is so far not more than a cardboard villain. He is a former Russian SVR agent and rogue terrorist. We've been told he wants to destroy US intelligence since a drone strike killed his brothers (drone strikes have rapidly become tv writers favorite villain motivators).  And for his private vendetta he was able to sneak thousands of operatives into the US? Who is funding this massive operation he is running? Apparently Shepherd's team was investigating his financing mechanisms when they were killed. So what exactly has everybody been up to in the four years that passed since Shepherd was put away? 

Edited March 7, 2019 by MissLucas

[tennisgurl]

Who has the extremely Russian name of...Tal.

[Happy Harpy]

13 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Who has the extremely Russian name of...Tal.

Maybe one of the writers is a chess fan. I think they might have taken the name from this guy: Mikhail Tal.

Technically, the Tal of the show could be of Russian nationality but of latvian/jewish or jewish origin.

[Whimsy]

On 3/4/2019 at 11:54 PM, KaveDweller said:

They recast the daughter and it distracted me. I guess we will keep seeing her?

I feel like this was pretty similar to last week's. Hopefully they make the CIA/FBI get smarter. I hate when shows make the leads all idiots so the big bad can keep committing crimes.

That explains it.  I wasn't paying super close attention, but I immediately saw a difference.  The other actress looked much older to me. 

On 3/5/2019 at 10:10 AM, MissLucas said:

I was suspecting a coded message inside the baseball cap. That it was just a motherly love note was both frustrating and inventive (shattering trope-fueled expectations).

Carpenter is mesmerizing enough for me to stick with the show for a couple of episodes more but I keep waiting for the writers to do something unexpected and twisty because so far this is pretty generic.

I was too.  I thought it would be more than just a ILY.

[Happy Harpy]

Sophia Gennusa has played Hannah Shepherd since the pilot. No recast.

[KaveDweller]

10 hours ago, Happy Harpy said:

Sophia Gennusa has played Hannah Shepherd since the pilot. No recast.

Hmm, well maybe she just grew between filming. But she looked so different to me.

And looking at her IMDB page, I see she played a young Rebecca (Jennifer Carpenter's character) on Limitless.  I guess they do look alike.

Edited March 9, 2019 by KaveDweller

[ShowsILoveToHate]

I could be totally wrong here, but I think the daughter is in on something, with the mother.  In the scene tonight where they let her meet with her daughter, and the flashbacks to when she went to her daughter's school, both times she said the word "beautiful" to the daughter; at the school, after mouthing "I love you", she then, a beat or two, mouthed "beautiful".  Then tonight when the daughter first sat down, the mother said "You're so big! Um, I mean, beautiful!!!". 

And then of course the "hat" references: "When I was in jail and we were so cold, they'd often give us extra socks. But all I wanted was a *hat*".  And then they show us last week's scene where the mother dropped the hat on the ground, and evidently the daughter picked it up because she had it in her bedroom and got it out and found the note.  There's got to be more to that note than just face value.  It's code for something.  I think that the daughter is another worker for Tal, or was being trained to work with her mother, for Tal.  

I'd think wonder if that was really her own daughter, except for the fact that the FBI/CIA do in-depth background checks, and they'd know whether she had a daughter or not.

Or, I'm just imagining that these things have any meaning at all.  LOL 

Oh, and I do think that we're going to find out that whatever her name is, the mother, was/is MUCH more trained than just what they claim she did. I don't think that everything that she observes, the glancing around, is just for dramatic effect.

[preeya]

On 3/8/2019 at 11:20 PM, ShowsILoveToHate said:

There's got to be more to that note than just face value.  It's code for something.  I think that the daughter is another worker for Tal, or was being trained to work with her mother, for Tal.  

I doubt this very much. I don't think the daughter or Erica worked for Tal. There's no way the star of this show is going to be the "bad guy."

[preeya]

S01:E03:   The Ambassador's Wife

Following the discovery that a U.S. ambassador is selling classified intelligence to a Colombian cartel, Shepherd devises a plan to catch him that will push Keaton's moral code to the brink. Keaton brings a new member on to the team.

[Happy Harpy]

Unfortunately, instead of the improvement I hoped for, this episode sucked bunches.

Cold opening too long and slow, lacked tension because too predictable. Who was tired of the walk of shame? Not the writers/directors, it seems. Four minutes and some  into the episode, I felt like bailing. Wonder how many casual viewers were gone already.

Big problem number one: If they really believed their PR BS about "our cops are smart", they should look up the definition of "smart". This show's cops are twice as stupid as they usually are on TV, because the writers need to make Erica the bestest at everything and the bad guys to always be a step or fifty ahead. The "I" in their "FBI" is for "incompetent".

Big problem number two: Keaton is the most incompetent of the bunch and still generic. I found Erica interesting yet the more of a Mary Sue she becomes, the more annoying she gets (the superior smirk of James Spader's character is one reason why I never watched The Black List). However, the writers insist on not developing enough the supporting roles, whom the leads have imo more chemistry with than together. I liked the new agent, but it wasn't very difficult since she's one of the few who wasn't merely an exposition fairy, with Daniel who managed to be more than a moral stance in his last scene, and Cruz in her honey trap role. 

Big problem number three: Bad writing. It's basically a CBS-like procedural, and the plots aren't even good. I couldn't care less about the COTW and I found the actors pretty bad. The mother-daughter relationship which had potential in the pilot, too, is now diluted in the NBC lacrymal touch. I don't expect documentary level of accuracy, I can suspend disbelief when watching scripted shows, but Erica interrogates a civilian in her prisoner attire and no one bats an eyelash?

Finally, "I'm a mothah" = *cringe* *cringe* *cringe* and even worse, it was played straight and worked = *cringe* *cringe* *cringe*

Edited March 12, 2019 by Happy Harpy

[preeya]

On 3/6/2019 at 12:46 PM, alvajon said:

And the actions of the Cruz character are so ridiculous. How long will it be before the lights go on and she's suspected of "someone on the inside?"

This again. ↑↑↑

Wake up Keaton, you're being played like a fiddle.

[Writing Wrongs]

7 hours ago, Happy Harpy said:

I can suspend disbelief when watching scripted shows, but Erica interrogates a civilian in her prisoner attire and no one bats an eyelash?

And her face has been all over the news, but the Ambassador's wife showed no recognition or wondered why a traitor was interviewing her?

I really want to like this show, but I think the Cruz seducing Keaton bit is too much for me. As dumb as Blindspot can get, at least it's entertaining.

[misstwpherecool]

After the first two epi's I had hope. The most recent epi using the DEA guys wife was too predictable. I like the characters but right now the mole/Cruz is dominating the show.

The lead character/actress seems extremely fit/skinny and no nails as in biting them? Is that for the show being a prisoner no nails?

[TV Anonymous]

How was that a self defense? The wife picked the pistol up, pointed it to her unarmed husband and shot him without any clear indication that her life was in immediate danger. The four FBI agent attested that it was indeed a self defense without being in the room during the build up of the shooting. Or did all of them just give false testimony?

[preeya]

The title for this episode should have been "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"

Is there a class that writers take that zeroes in on how to make the FBI always look like assholes?

[sempervivum]

2 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

How was that a self defense?

Yeah, I really doubt that the ambassador's son is going to be just fine with having seen his mom kill his dad (' you and (son's name) will be there for each other'). The show could have pointed out how this situation was similar to Erica's daughter not being OK with her mom's 'treason', but they glossed over it.

That said, I AM SICK already of the weepy daughter-yearning stuff. This isn't what I signed up for, and J. Carpenter or no, I'm getting fed up. 

[MissLucas]

Well, I'll start with the good first. We finally got to see Shepherd's ruthless side. It was about time to see that side of her because yeah, all the 'I'm a mother'-whining is getting tedious really fast. We may as well add that to last week's drinking game. Jennifer Carpenter is still selling the hell out what she's given but she deserves better (we could add that to the drinking game too).

As for the not good to bad stuff: Ambassador in one of the most violent Latin American countries declines increased security measures after terrorist attack in another Latin American country - and nobody wonders why? Did he send back a memo to DC: 'We can save some money here as I'm in cahoots with the big bad wolf cartel'? How did this guy survive for so long if he was so shitty at covering his tracks? Because the only person with a working brain in US intelligence was in prison? 

And I'm starting to find Shepard's dedication to her daughter somewhat creepy. Also - where is the father in all this? He never shows up in all her weepy memories nor in her conversations with Keaton. When you listen to Shepherd it sounds as if she was a single mom all her life yet Hanna mentioned living with Dad as if it was no big deal so I assume he must have been around to a certain degree. And what is he doing now? Is he getting FBI protection too or does he not count?

Parts of this episode were written with a sledgehammer. I groaned when the ambassador's wife opened a drawer to reveal Chekhov's gun, not to mention all the 'I'm a mother'-manipulation during the extremely unlikely interview (as pointed out above how did the ambassador's wife not recognize the worst traitor since Benedict Arnold in a drab prison clothes).

Comparisons to Blindspot are inevitable (FBI good but dim - CIA shady). When I read that a new character would be introduced this week I was silently hoping for a Patterson equivalent. She seems competent enough - maybe team her up with Shepherd, keep Daniel around and send Keaton to the filing department. Then bring in a Rich equivalent - if only for wardrobe reasons because I'm getting as tired of the drab grey color scheme as I'm of the maternal monologues. Rich with one of his fabulous printed shirts would do wonders for this show!

Edited March 12, 2019 by MissLucas

[KaveDweller]

4 hours ago, MissLucas said:

And I'm starting to find Shepard's dedication to her daughter somewhat creepy. Also - where is the father in all this? He never shows up in all her weepy memories nor in her conversations with Keaton. When you listen to Shepherd it sounds as if she was a single mom all her life yet Hanna mentioned living with Dad as if it was no big deal so I assume he must have been around to a certain degree. And what is he doing now? Is he getting FBI protection too or does he not count?

Yeah, I was wondering about the dad too. In the pilot, I assumed she was a single mother. But then the daughter talked about how she and her dad had to move, which implies the dad lived with them and they had to move because they lost Shepard's salary. But if she was married she sure doesn't seem to care about her husband.

But either way, I'm not finding this show nearly as compelling as expected from the promos.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

Hmmm, not sure if done. Was definitely about to be done until I saw the preview showing that Sensei Master Jennifer Who Sees And Knows All is going to figure out the mole situation and that this isn't going to be dragged out all season. It might be interesting to see how things pan out as Mole Girl matches wits with SMJWSAKA, especially since Mole Girl has seemingly discovered SMJWSAKA's daughter-shaped Kryptonite. And all law enforcement agencies are apparently powerless to protect her from the unseen but equally all-knowing, all-powerful Tal. 

Re-reading that last paragraph, I have to ask - is this actually a Superhero show?

Mind you, given how easily and quickly the DEA team in the teaser were taken down by the Cartel baddies, maybe SMJWSAKA is right not to trust them to protect her daughter or, y'know, anything.

16 hours ago, Writing Wrongs said:

And her face has been all over the news, but the Ambassador's wife showed no recognition or wondered why a traitor was interviewing her?

This.

Also, hello random woman from FBI Training School who we never met before and who that one dude with the stubble brought in to do stuff this week. I'm sure you're a very interesting character and a great person, but this show already has about 20 characters we've barely met, know nothing about, do not care about and who should be able to do all this sort of suerveillancey, wire-cutty stuff for themselves because they are regulars and you are not. Please go away again so they can have a tiny sliver of screentime to develop more than one dimension each.

Screentime is kind of a premium in this show, you see, because every week things have to grind to a halt while JCarp does emotive monologues about her daughter and also because the writers needed to take a lot of it to drop anvilicious parallels between her sitch and the sitch of this week's other non-regular who, in turn, also hoovered up even more of it and then didn't manage to even do what she was supposed to do. And all this when I can't even remember what the stubble guy or the blonde woman or the other guy who didn't think JCarp's plan was a good one are called. (Oh and he was right. Maybe he should be the new Sensei Master Who Sees And Knows All.)

Tomorrow I plan to walk into my office slowly, read three random pieces of paper out of the corner of my eye and then astound everyone by knowing exactly what is going on in their lives.

Edited March 13, 2019 by BaskingsharkGTX

[preeya]

14 minutes ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

SMJWSAKA

OK, I'll bite. Translation, please.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

2 minutes ago, preeya said:

OK, I'll bite. Translation, please.

Sensei Master Jennifer Who Sees And Knows All

[MissLucas]

18 hours ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

Tomorrow I plan to walk into my office slowly, read three random pieces of paper out of the corner of my eye and then astound everyone by knowing exactly what is going on in their lives.

He! I had forgotten about that Sherlockian heroperp-walk. I guess we can add 'eidetic memory' to her list of accomplishments? The only thing lacking seems to be 'common sense to organize protective detail for daughter when going after scary terrorist'.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

5 hours ago, MissLucas said:

The only thing lacking seems to be 'common sense to organize protective detail for daughter when going after scary terrorist'.

It is her ONE FLAW! When the writers were creating her character by following the flow-chart in "TV Writing for Dummies", they got to the part which said "Your character must have a FLAW. This is their ACHILLES HEEL!" and decided they were giving her this blind spot as hers.

Unfortunately one of them had spilt coffee on the next sentence which said "The flaw must make sense."

I do wish this show was better. Jennifer Carpenter is such an interesting actress. She makes unusual choices and tries heroically to sell her Sad About Daughter Monologues. Deb was my favorite on Dexter - her foul-mouthedness was a really offbeat character trait and Jennifer sold it without making her obnoxiously abrasive which was no mean feat. She really deserves more than to be stuck playing Red Reddington's savanty little sister.

Edited March 14, 2019 by BaskingsharkGTX

[Trini]

Well, I gave this 3 episodes. I'm out. There are more things that annoy me than entertain me, and I don't like Shepard. The Tal conspiracy isn't compelling so far.

[tennisgurl]

God this show is so fucking serious all of the time, it feels like its lacks in humanity, or any sense of enjoyment. Yeah it doesent have to be like fellow current spy show Whiskey Tango or something, and this is seriously important stuff that people should be taking seriously, but no one acts like an actual person, there are no really humanizing moments, other than the dead fiance and the daughter, which is more angsty than humanizing, there are no moments of even minor levity, its just kind of a slog. The constant seriousness would be fine if it was really exciting like 24 or something like that, or if it had a more complex story arc or was about some kind of very real social issue, like American Crime, but it isnt any of that. Its characters arent even that complex or dark, most everyone is just kind of shouting exposition, except for Erica who has her daughter and her angst about giving people up for said daughter. Its just paint by numbers spy procedural with some vague eastern European bad guy who hates America because of something stupid and his vast spy network of rondos, a double agent who is really pretty obvious, and a bunch of suites who fight against him who have no real personality, and dont even seem to know or like each other very much.

The show isnt awful, so I will keep going, at least partially because I think this premise has promise and Carpenter is such an interesting performer, but I am losing interest real fast. 

[BaskingsharkGTX]

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

the dead fiance

Given how many TV and movie spies have dead fiances/wives/husbands/families/children/children who they befriended/friends/former military unit colleagues etc etc etc, I'm amazed that any of them can function. If the real CIA/FBI were like this, the mental health support budget would bankrupt the country in a week.

[BellyLaughter]

I’m not sure about timelines for this show but it seems that NBC got wind of ABC  making a spy show and thought they should also make a (more serious) spy show by casting the worst actress to play a mole ever complemented by casting the worst actor to portray a FBI unit chief ever and thinking their scenes together wouldn’t be some of the worst TV made in the last 10 years.... fail NBC, big fail.

I still heart Jennifer Carpenter however... 

[MissLucas]

I'm still hoping for a major twist even though it would not exactly be earned at this point. But there's got to be more to this than what we've been told. Maybe Shepherd is in cahoots with Tal after all and her imprisonment is part of a long con. Heck, while I'm crazy spit-balling maybe Tal is Hanna's father? No idea how this could ever make sense but it's not as if the tale we've been presented so far makes much sense either.

[preeya]

S01.E04: Confessions

Summary

When intelligence obtained by Shepherd during her stint at the notorious ADMAX prison is linked to a pending attack on U.S. soil, Keaton and the Cointel team embark on a manhunt to find and stop a deadly international operative. Keaton confronts questions of loyalty and betrayal when it comes to Anna Cruz and his late fiance's father, Thomas Heffron.

 

17 hours ago, preeya said:

Keaton:  And why would she do that?

Shepherd:  Because she's a mole working for Tal.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by preeya

[Happy Harpy]

"Because she's a mole". OMG, the overdramatic cliffhanger, the overacting, the direction, everything. After the Microsoft commercial, it was as if a soap opera had hijacked the last frame of the super serious spy show. I'm ded, but I finally laughed once. OK, twice; when the suspect escaped on the docks since incompetence for plot has become this show's signature.

Too bad it wasn't 1x02 or 1x03 though, it definitely seemed better than last week's mess. (Mayyyybe, naming two additional co-showrunners after the pilot wasn't the smartest move...but I guess it explains a certain number of things.)

Anyway, since I have no good will or so little left, I FFed through a lot of it. Daughter yada yada, dead fiancé yada yada, Erica knows it all yada yada, exposition fairies yada yada, but wait, did Kate actually notice a security failure? Wow, one of the agents was actually competent once! I also liked Kate and Daniel in their scene (or "scenes" since I can't believe it, but they had more natural interactions and moments as exposition fairies on a CM, rather than on the last two episodes). It still had some info dump shades because the writers neglected to provide them in the previous episodes. Why didn't they exploit the idea of a conflict within the team immediately, beyond a couple of scenes or stances? It would have allowed to flesh out the characters rapidly, while staying on main plot. Daniel and Kate also seem the closest personally to Keaton, those three should be used more together.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Happy Harpy

[Maverick]

OMG that Microsoft commercial. Look up "awkward" in an online dictionary and a clip of that will be attached. And did the commercial after the faux show commercial say they're using AI to come up with new beer flavors?  The hell?

 I was wicked pissed when it became clear they ran the dialogue in that last scene through a Salad Shooter for last week's promo to make it sound like the daughter was being threatened.  I figured this mole plot would drag out the whole season but "she's a MOLE!!".  Well played, show.  Certainly better played than that Microsoft product placement. 

[tennisgurl]

I am certainly glad that they arent dragging the mole plot out forever. Even with the hilariously over the top dramatic "MOLE!!!" revelation, I am glad that we`re moving on. The mole is pretty hard core, but she isnt all that subtle honestly. 

I still think that Erica not telling anyone that her daughter was threatened when she gave up the spies is a stupid thing to do, and basically just exists for her to be this huge traitor, while still making her sympathetic. Honestly, I kind of wish she really was a mole or did something sketchy, and is now trying to make up for her mistakes, it would give her more of a redemption arc and give her more to do as a character, making the show more morally ambiguous. And despite her whole reason behind this being that her daughter would be upset if she knew what choice her mom had to make, I feel like making her daughter and husband think that she was a traitor the whole time and sold out the agents they were friends with in cold blood seems like it would hurt them worse, and make them the family of a traitor on top of that. Telling the truth seems like it would be better for everyone. 

Edited March 19, 2019 by tennisgurl

[preeya]

I am willing to wager that when they confront MOLE, Anna Cruz, she'll somehow be able to escape and another futile chase will be initiated.

It's not just this show, but all FBI related shows, that the writers have a penchant to make the bureau look like fools. 

[MissLucas]

Well, product placement in shows is always clunky but this took clunky to a whole new level. I normally shrug it off because shows need money but it's hard to ignore such snark-fodder.

Well, we finally got the hear a bit about Hanna's Dad. And of course Erica lied to him too. But as @tennisgurl pointed out her whole reasoning for her lies makes no sense once you take a closer look. Hanna would need therapy (IRL) either way - mom's a traitor without cause, mom's a traitor to save her life. 

Also: by willingly go to prison to spare her daughter Erica robbed the intelligence community of the massive asset that is her brain (just go with it). How many people died because Shepherd wasn't giving input and pointing out the obvious? The whole premise is just stupid. Also stupid: they bring Shepherd in shackles to their offices every episode and I assume she's under constant surveillance, there's always an extra in a FBI jacket hovering in the back - so how can she access the system? Are those guards just decorative and have no order to slap her fingers as soon as she touches a keyboard without an agent nearby? Is she a witch?

Looks like I'll soon switch allegiance to the other spy-spawn called Hanna.

[stitcher73]

On 3/13/2019 at 7:09 PM, MissLucas said:

He! I had forgotten about that Sherlockian heroperp-walk. I guess we can add 'eidetic memory' to her list of accomplishments? The only thing lacking seems to be 'common sense to organize protective detail for daughter when going after scary terrorist'.

THIS!   I came here to just say that was ridiculous.   Is she Superman?  Does she have magnifying eyesight.  Over the top.  I hope they stop with this.

[Loandbehold]

3 hours ago, MissLucas said:

But as @tennisgurl pointed out her whole reasoning for her lies makes no sense once you take a closer look. Hanna would need therapy (IRL) either way - mom's a traitor without cause, mom's a traitor to save her life. 

I'm not as bothered by Erica's thought process as others. We found out in this episode that the four agents were close to Hanna - spending every birthday w/ her. So, if Erica said that she gave the names of the agents to protect Hanna's life, not only would Hanna feel that mom was a traitor to save her life, but that she was personally responsible as a result for the deaths of her friends. That could elevate her guilt by several orders of magnitude.

13 hours ago, Happy Harpy said:

but wait, did Kate actually notice a security failure? Wow, one of the agents was actually competent once!

Actually, that was the second time this episode that Kate proved herself to be competent. She was also the one to realize that the intended target was the Senator. I really thought Erica was going to figure that one out. Who knows, its possible that by the end of the season, each of the supporting members of the team will have their singular (or doubular?) moment of competency.

[sweetandsour]

I'm hanging out with this show just fine, even though it doesn't work for me on some levels. It's a shorter non-22 episode season, so that's a workable time investment. As others have said, it's dead serious all the time, but probably still less so than "FBI." I need them to show Raza Jaffrey more love, though.

Really just here to add that I laughed out loud at the contrast between Erica "Sherlock" Shepherd and Anna the Mole. On one hand, you have Erica with her eagle eye 100/10 vision, mentally cataloguing everything, and on the other hand, you have Anna overhearing Erica's question about accessing PCI files and actually writing "PCI Files" on a post-it as though Anna cannot remember this tidbit otherwise. Now that's what I call the makings of a well-trained spy. Compared to that, her flirtation with Keaton is downright masterful.

Kate's my favorite.

I don't know what Tal's strategy is regarding Erica's involvement in hunting him down. And obviously he knows through Anna the Mole. Is he keeping Erica in play for the long game, even if she foils him at times? If he saw her as a threat and wanted to eliminate the threat (not necessarily killing her), it's crystal clear how to. Hannah is out in the open, not under any kind of federal obscuring/protection. If Tal kidnapped Hannah or otherwise threatened her in a credible ongoing way, Erica would fold, no question. Send her back to ADMAX, she'll never catch Tal - but she won't care as long as Hannah is safe. At this point, I think Erica would feel the same if her husband (Chris?) was threatened as well because of how much he already feels betrayed by her and Erica's desire for Hannah to have at least one parent alive in her life.

[preeya]

2 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

And obviously he knows through Anna the Mole.

I'll be referring to Anna the Mole as MolAnna.

[alvajon]

On 3/12/2019 at 2:03 PM, MissLucas said:

Comparisons to Blindspot are inevitable (FBI good but dim - CIA shady). When I read that a new character would be introduced this week I was silently hoping for a Patterson equivalent. She seems competent enough - maybe team her up with Shepherd, keep Daniel around and send Keaton to the filing department. Then bring in a Rich equivalent - if only for wardrobe reasons because I'm getting as tired of the drab grey color scheme as I'm of the maternal monologues. Rich with one of his fabulous printed shirts would do wonders for this show!

Me again, comparing Enemy Within to Blindspot.  Is this a copycat show?  (NBC, obviously same writers)  Each show has an FBI agent Keaton, each show has a Shepherd.  Is Kate the new Patterson?  What do you wanna bet Patterson’s first name is Kate?  I agree we need  Richdotcom here.   

[Guest]

I liked the premise, but it’s getting worse and worse.  And already doing dumb in-show commercials? I’m about to quit.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

MOLE GIRL YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED! All-Seeing All-Knowing JCarp is hip. She knows what cooks. She's wise to your tricks. She's wise to EVERYTHING. She sees you straightening Morris Chestnut's tie and immediately knows that you are playing a part and are Secretly Evil™. It was a clever ruse to make everything you say sound like you're reading it off a cue card so that when you lie, you don't need to sound convincing BUT NOT CLEVER ENOUGH! (or maybe the actress just sucks...)

Also I now know what the twist at the end of the season will be. DRUMROLL PLEASE as... Shepherd turns out not to be human! In fact she is.... a Microsoft AI™! 

Is every teaser in every episode all season long going to involve a terrorist or terrorists easily overcoming some facet of law enforcement and waltzing into the country? I do not feel my tax dollars are being well spent.

It is great that New Woman from last week is now a regular because what this show needs is more flat unmemorable characters. Now I can be unable to remember her name too! 

[alvajon]

2 hours ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

It is great that New Woman from last week is now a regular because what this show needs is more flat unmemorable characters. Now I can be unable to remember her name too! 

I already forgot who “New Woman” is...

[atlantaloves]

Yipes this show is God awful....I really had high hopes...but whew, bad bad bad scripts. I'm probably out. 

[BaskingsharkGTX]

I thought of more stupid things about this show that I wanted to vent about. 

How exactly does the unseen father of JCarp's daughter not know that she has been going to visit JCarp? The first visit (that she stormed out of) was fully organized by Morris Chestnut. Did he just call up the daughter (who is a minor) on her cell and be like "Hey, wanna come see your mom?" without even running this past the dad who has official custody of her? It's pretty ridiculous that they clearly don't want to have to cast/show the dad while they load up the Morris' team with 47 agents, all of whom barely have time to do anything on screen.

And also, does this daughter have no feelings or thoughts of her own about this situation and what her mom did? When JCarp ran off and showed up at her house in the pilot and she saw her mom, she was all sad and crying, then when they first met she stormed out, then she got a bland note and came back. She was even sadly meh about having to not do volleyball anymore. She's just sort of... mopey. Wouldn't she be angry/betrayed/in denial/just SOMETHING to create some conflict and make her not appear such an underwritten jello person?

I am giving this one more week, mostly to see what happens with Mole Girl, but after wasting 120 minutes of my life on the first three episodes of Tidelands I promised myself that I would not hatewatch any more shows in 2019 so after that I may well be out.

Edited March 23, 2019 by BaskingsharkGTX