The Vice President is calling the shots.
Note: this is a spoiler-free advance review of the first episode of Agent X. The first two episodes of the series will premiere on TNT on Sunday, November 8.
TNT picked an auspicious week to debut Agent X. With the new James Bond movie reviving everyone’s interest in over-the-top spy drama (and possibly failing to satisfy, judging from the middling reviews), there’s room for a TV show that covers similar ground. Agent X is essentially a mash-up of the Bond franchise and the National Treasure movies. Sadly, the end result isn’t as entertaining as that combination sounds.
Agent X posits that there’s a good reason why the Vice President of the United States is placed in such a lofty position but given so few actual responsibilities. It turns out that their main duty is to spearhead the clandestine Agent X program, where the VP, their steward and a lone field agent deal with threats too dangerous or politically thorny for the likes of the President or CIA. It’s a silly premise, but at least it ensures there’s no danger of the show taking itself too seriously.
Agent X’s main selling point is the fact that it marks Sharon Stone’s first ongoing TV role. Stone (who also serves as Executive Producer alongside Armyan Bernstein and William Blake Herron), stars as newly minted Vice President Natalie Maccabee. Maccabee is understandably flabbergasted upon learning what her new role actually entails. If she’s the M of this tiny little MI:6 group, then Malcolm Millar (Simon & Simon’s Gerald McRaney) is the Q – the multi-talented handler/tech whiz who keeps missions running smoothly. As for Bond himself, that would be the titular Agent X, John Case (Easy Money’s Jeff Hephner). Rounding out the main cast in this first episode are John Shea as the new President (and Agent X veteran) Thomas Eckhart and Darth Vader himself, James Earl Jones, as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Mike Colter (Marvel’s Jessica Jones) will also play a recurring role as the Speaker of the House, but he doesn’t appear in this first episode.
In a lot of ways, Agent X feels like a relic of a simpler, more innocent era of television. Homeland this isn’t. It features a very straightforward conflict wherein the government agents are the good guys and the villains are a shadowy group of Russian politicians and businessmen. There’s a certain charm to that approach. Hephner plays Case as a very likable American James Bond, not overly burdened by anything other than the need to stay out of sight and carry out his mission. This episode builds an entertaining rivalry between Case and a deadly, double-jointed Russian assassin played by Olga Fonda. Fonda’s femme fatale is easily the highlight of this debut episode.
Doing what thousands of CIA and FBI agents apparently can’t.
The series has some fun trappings that will very much appeal to National Treasure fans – secret passageways behind fireplaces, Masonic symbols and architecture, references to historical figures as globetrotting super-spies, etc. There’s even the obligatory scene where Maccabee is introduced to the “real” copy of the US Constitution. Again, the show makes no bones about how goofy its premise is.
However, the straightforward approach works against the show in a lot of ways. Granted, it’s still very early, but there’s a distinct lack of depth to pretty much every single character. There’s little insight into what motivates Case or makes him tick, and even less for Millar. Jones’ character is wasted, contributing nothing more than a pep talk and a little bit of exposition (though if anyone is going to give important political figures a pep talk, it should be him). As for Maccabee, the episode inexplicably keeps zeroing in on a tragic accident from her past, both in the form of news broadcasts and a dream sequence. It’s a very heavy-handed way to lend the character an aura of sympathy.
Apart from Hephner and Fonda, the performances are uniformly bland. Stone is oddly stiff as Maccabee, mainly settling for looking bored and confused as she becomes swept up in her new life of espionage and violence. McRaney is fine as the competent, formality-obsessed Millar, but he doesn’t bring any real gravitas to his role. Nor do any of the various politicians and gangsters leave much of an impression. Missy Stanton struggles through a thankless role as a kidnap victim Case is charged with rescuing. Her awkward line delivery and nonstop shrieking are a constant distraction during the episode’s climax.
This series looks very much like a show that would have aired 20 years ago. Between the low production budget and the fact that it was shot in Vancouver, Agent X actually looks quite a bit like an old X-Files episode. There’s little scope in terms of both the conflicts and the set design. And while the opening action scene is impressive enough, the choppy editing in the climax is almost as much a drain on Case’s mission as Stanton’s screaming.
Agent X certainly has a strong concept. The idea of blending James Bond and National Treasure is sound, and at times the combination plays nicely on screen. But too often the show struggles to take advantage of that potential in this first episode. Between the wooden characters, simplistic conflict and the generally low-budget feel, Agent X often plays more like a show from 1995 than 2015.
