Can
One Really Double-cross Themselves? #Counterpart #Starz #3weekroundup
#recap #review
All pictures courtesy of Starz
A
beloved character-actor’s journey back to TV has been a somewhat
bumpy one that has landed us here. Yes, it’s time for yet another
recap/review of a new show of the 2017-18 season. So, is Counterpart
worthy of becoming a part of your well-balanced TV diet or is it part
of nothing special? (Oy! That was a terrible setup!) Let’s find out
together!
Starz’s
Counterpart stars Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons as Howard Silk,
the coggiest cog in the corporate machine that you can find. Every
day, he goes to work at a plain gray building, walks down a plain
gray hall, receives a briefcase with a manila folder inside with
pedantic phrases on it that seemingly have no meaning, exchanges said
phrases with someone on the other side of a thin prison-like glass,
then goes back home from what the first episode shows. It’s very
Orwellian in nature. No, the person on the other side of the pane is
not an inmate but is a simple man just like him. There is no exchange
of greetings as that is not permitted. The other man is the one who
starts the “interface” by saying the phrase that was either given
to him that day, or that he finds in his own briefcase. The case is
filled with other folders each with other phrases on them, but Howard
must choose the one labeled with what the other man says to him. They
then go down the page exchanging the phrases written on their papers
and writing numbers in what seems like a random pattern.
The
day ends and Howard leaves to go about his business. A man of
patterns, every day Howard picks up some freshly cut flowers and goes
to the hospital where one of the on-duty nurses always lifts the old
flower from the previous day and allows for him to replace that
flower with a new one while she gives him a brief overview of any
progress. He then takes the remaining bouquet down the hall to his
wife’s room where she has been in a coma for some months now after
a car hit her in the street. He reads to her.
Every
morning he gets up, goes down to a local cafe terrace and plays
backgammon with a younger friend and always lets the guy win, then
it’s back in to work. Except today is different. See, some guy in
another department just got promoted which means that Howard can get
promoted to that guy’s vacant position. He’s been doing the same
job for near 30 years but finds it problematic. He doesn’t know
what the hell they do there. He has no idea why he has to say the
phrases, has never properly met any of the people with whom he
interacts with through the glass, and never has a proper conversation
with them. But the previous day he messed up. He got up from the desk
and, as he turned to leave, pointed out that the man on the other
side had a little smudge of jelly on his tie. That’s against the
rules, and now things are going to change.
But
the jelly is not the reason why. No, his life is going to change
because they suddenly need him. His boss Peter (played by Harry Lloyd
of Game of Thrones fame) and his second superior Aldrich (played by
Ulrich Thomsen) have a source that will only talk to him. And we are,
to this point, still just as confused as Howard is. And they bring
the source in, and take the bag off the source’s head and it’s
revealed to be... Howard Silk. But different. Cooler.
Apparently,
about 30 years ago the universe and/or time split in two. Somehow
this earth made a direct copy of itself but left a doorway open
between the two earths. And ever since then the worlds have been
secretly exchanging intel. On it’s face, you should already see a
huge problem with this conceit, but I’ll withhold judgment until
the end of the review. Again, up until about 30 years ago, there was
one world and then there were two, but they still both had the same
history, same memories, same advances, and then they started to
diverge from each other which has led them to become two drastically
different worlds. If you're following this, you will know that Howard
Silk is still Howard Silk in the other universe, dig? He doesn’t
have a different name or looks different, because he was born before
the split, so his timeline could only diverge so much. From this
point on we will call the original Howard “Howard” and the other
Howard “How2.” How2 is a spy of some sort in his world which
we’ll call earth2. From what I could understand from the first
episode, he works for the same corporation/government-funded business
that Howard works for but in an entirely different department. I
wasn’t too clear on it, but what was clear is that he knows all
about the corporation and their various levels/departments as he is
rather shocked and disappointed that Howard is still in Interface,
which is the base department you can be in. Somehow Howard, who is
told not to freak out, doesn’t freak out at seeing his double for
the first time—he must secretly lead a super-exciting life. Still,
he can’t get any real answers until How2 tells his two bosses to
bring him up to speed because they’ll need him for the mission.
 |
| Left to right: Howard, Peter, How2 |
Howard
learns what I already told you: the world split into two different
universes 30 years ago and everything is slightly different on the
other side of this doorway that they call The Crossing. There are so
many sci-fi questions that beg to be asked here but aren’t because
Howard is more concerned with how he’s being treated as a pawn in a
much bigger game of which he knows nothing about. He’s told to go
home and just chill out until How2 returns the next day.
Meanwhile,
as Howard is back at home, one of his coworkers and semi-friend is
murdered by this woman at a gay club. This action is a warning shot
to How2.
Back
to Howard who comes into work the next day with an entirely different
notion of what he does for a living. He meets with his bosses again
along with How2. They tell him that a very bad assassin has come from
the other world into Howard’s and is seeking to hurt How2
emotionally to send a message. How2 tells him that his/their wife is
dead on earth2 but this female killer knows that earth1 wife is still
alive. So she figures that if she kills the comatose wife too, it
will be a double whammy for How2 to have to know that his wife no
longer exists anywhere in the two known universes. Basically, it’s
the “you can never save her” trope similar to Inception.
So
now Howard is all-in on whatever he has to do to keep his wife from
being killed. He thinks he’s going to become some super-spy or
something but all How2 wants is to stand in as him for a while so
that the killer doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. How2 knows
that the killer is already watching Howard’s routines, and believes
that the best way to thwart the murder is for him to pose as this
world’s Howard and go visit his wife in the hospital as usual. Then
the killer will come, and he’ll kill her before she hurts the wife.
All Howard has to do is take him through every step of his routine so
that nothing feels out of place to the killer when she comes.
They
prepare for the night by talking about how much they love their wife
and how she died on earth2 and the kind of life they lived and how
people are right when they say that one little decision can change
the entire world. Here, I’ll just say that I thought there’d be a
deeper conversation and there really wasn’t. They spent about ten
minutes screen time together just sitting and talking; three days
later I could hardly remember anything they actually said to each
other.
Moving
on, the Howards and the two bosses all go to the hospital at the
usual evening time. How2 goes in posed as Howard while the other one
stays safely tucked down into the seats of the car, hoping not to be
seen. How2 does the routine, save for one crucial detail. As the
nurse sees him coming with the flowers, she plucks out the old one
from yesterday, but he doesn’t stop to put in a new one or talk to
her. He bypasses the nurse’s station completely and goes directly
to her room. He is able to sit with her for a while and remember how
it was to be with his wife.
So
How2 goes back through the portal only to reveal that his wife,
apparently, is still alive. They meet in a bar, and we end on that
shot.
Episode
2 picks up right where we left off in the second world. How2 meets
his version of Emily Burton Silk played by actress Olivia Williams.
But unlike in the first world, here she seems to be his ex-wife as
she shirks his touch (she is with someone else at the moment, leaving
him out in the cold). Emily2, apparently, seems to work for the same
company as him but in the “housekeeping” department, meaning that
she basically has a team that does dirty work on various agents and
brings them in to make sure things don’t get out of hand in the
agency. She has come to meet her ex because he just had a rendition
order put out on him. She asks what he’s been doing on the other
side, and he gives her no details as to his business, the business of
saving the other her. Her team—three men with surly faces and
holstered guns—are already stationed at the bar and How2 says that
he’ll go willingly, but smells something fishy about the whole
thing. Oddly, he walks out and the men follow him out but his ex-wife
does not, which I thought strange seeing as how these are supposedly
her men working on her team. Anyway, they escort him over to their
car where he gets into the back seat with one of them and they start
looking through paperwork and talking to each other in another
language when he takes one of their guns and kills all three of them,
then quietly gets out of the car and walks away, all with his ex-wife
none-the-wiser.
From
here we start to dive farther into the traditional espionage intrigue
that one would expect from a show like this. How2 goes to a priest
buddy who is also somehow connected to the organization they work for
as he can get “visas” into the other world that last for a few
hours to a full day. The priest tells him that he didn’t hear
anything about a rendition order and that he doesn’t need to go on
the run, just go back in to the organization tomorrow and see if they
arrest you for killing three men or if they let you through. If the
former, then there really was a rendition order. If the latter, then
someone is trying to kill you and cover it up. Guess which one
happens.
We
don’t see much more of Emily that is really important, save for a
meeting with her superiors where she is questioned about the
rendition order that never was. And clearly the organization on that
side is just as secretive as it is on earth1 because she sheds not a
single tear for the three dead guys. I’m guessing that even though
she was technically their boss, she didn’t know them. She also has
a meeting with the priest to ask about How2 and see if he knows what
the guy is doing on earth1. He knows nothing.
Meanwhile,
back in this world, Howard receives that promotion to Analysis like
he wanted. Now, his job is to take those enveloped, strange dialogues
that he used to say everyday in Interface and interpret/decode them.
How are they supposed to decode them and what are the messages they
are expecting to find? He has no idea, but he knows that they are
supposed to move quickly because they have more and more of them
coming in throughout the day. But before he can even get to decode
one, his boss and the other guy show up again needing his help
because How2 is back on their side and has a plan.
Since
How2 has been a spy for years—he helped establish the entire
clandestine network for the organization that spans between the two
worlds—he knows how this female assassin would think because it is
how he would think. In the process, he also lets Howard in on more of
what’s really going on. So, as stated before this is another world,
but it is not, I repeat not, just a doorway into another realm or
universe. In other words, this world wasn’t just a parallel
universe that always existed but it was definitively created by some
kind of experiment gone wrong which made this world duplicate and
from there they became alternates to each other. Essentially, it is
like a cell that has split. There’s one cell to begin with, but
that cell, in order to reproduce, splits in two, creating two unique
cells both of which have the same things in them but differ ever so
slightly from each other.
Also, there’s some serious political upheaval on How2’s side which still felt a little unclear, but know that there are now two factions that are battling for control and that know about The Crossing. One faction sent the assassin. The assassin’s name in earth2 is Baldwin—her nickname—which, up until now was believed to be a man’s name. The problem: she was born before the split. Yes, that means that she exists in both worlds and has a doppelganger. How2’s plan is to exploit her earth1 self to find out how Baldwin might operate.
Also, there’s some serious political upheaval on How2’s side which still felt a little unclear, but know that there are now two factions that are battling for control and that know about The Crossing. One faction sent the assassin. The assassin’s name in earth2 is Baldwin—her nickname—which, up until now was believed to be a man’s name. The problem: she was born before the split. Yes, that means that she exists in both worlds and has a doppelganger. How2’s plan is to exploit her earth1 self to find out how Baldwin might operate.
Baldwin
still uses the raggedy shack that her father left her in his will to
clean herself up from the gunshot wound she sustained in the gunfight
at the hospital. She knows that Nadia knows about the place too and
that How2 will figure that out. Somehow, Baldwin also has an earth1
handler on that side that tells her the only logical next step is to
kill her counterpart before Howard, How2 and the organization can
exploit her. So the race is on to find Nadia and keep her safe.
Well,
How2 beats Baldwin to the punch and finds Nadia and pries some info
from her. Howard and his bosses are then able to go to the woman’s
apartment and to that cabin only to find that Baldwin has been there
but is now back in the city. In a genius move, Baldwin calls in an
emergency about two guys being dead (she then kills them) and a man
holding a woman hostage in a local bar (How2 with a drunk Nadia). The
police raid the place and “rescue” Nadia only to take her out
into the open where Baldwin already awaits the woman’s arrival. But
looking into her eyes, remembering that traumatic moment in which
they both witnessed their father’s death keeps her from killing her
otherworldly self. She kidnaps her and yanks her over to the theater
where Nadia and the orchestra practiced earlier. How2 and the dudes
from the organization are still tracking after her while Howard
wanders around.
At
this point Baldwin doesn’t know what to do. She knows she has to
kill herself but can’t and can feel the cornering guards closing
in. She reveals herself to herself only for Nadia to think
that she is so drunk she has become delusional and is having some
sort of Scrooge-like vision of her past demons (Baldwin has a nasty
cut on her face from a gunshot wound). Baldwin wants to know how
Nadia got over their father’s death and how they were partially
responsible, but Nadia can give her no real answer. Nadia eventually
escapes Baldwin’s clutches only for her to run onto the orchestral
stage and be gunned down by one of the organization’s men even
though Howard tried to shout him down. Baldwin is then so stunned by
this that she can hardly move as she and Howard watch Nadia slowly
die. Even worse, instead of the organization being quick to grab her,
the local police scoop Baldwin right over Nadia’s dead body. What
was once a slight problem has now become a huge mess.
 |
| Emily |
Episode
three starts six weeks prior with a look at this world's Emily Silk.
Emily was out on a plaza at night and appeared to be looking/waiting
for someone. As she looked back over her shoulder in anticipation,
she stepped off the sidewalk and into the street right in front of
the path of an oncoming van. That accident landed her in the hospital
where Howard has been coming to visit her every night since the
accident. Here I should say that I could have sworn that on the first
episode they said they were going to move his wife to another
hospital, as opposed to another wing of the floor but the way it was
filmed definitely said “same hospital.” But again it doesn't
matter, it's just one of those little details that kind of irritate
you, and I was half-trying to write the review while watching, so I
probably misheard.
We
zoom ahead to the current problem which presents as a helluva doozy
for both sides. Somehow news of Baldwin's arrest made it back to the
other side already. Because of this, they have already begun the
process of getting her back which will entail a negotiation between
the two sides. For those fans of political shows this part is for you
as we begin to see more interaction between the two sides on a
diplomatic level, and we see the potential for what the show could
be.
So,
first we have the plan. How2, in conjunction with Howard's two bosses
comes up with a plan to disrupt the negotiation for as long as
possible. Remember, How2 knows or at least thinks he knows that there
is corruption on his side somewhere in upper-management, so if
Baldwin gets to go back to their side she could very well be let off
free and contracted to do more jobs in the future. He wants to know
what she knows before sending her anywhere and thinks that any intel
she gives them would be far more valuable while in this world rather
than in his. So they feel they must distract from this proposed trade
by any means necessary. The trade is two fold: an ambassador from
earth2 that lives full-time on this earth will meet with some
higher-up management on this world that work for the company or
“embassy” of this world to make a deal. We learn that the two
worlds each have their own problems that they deal with and for. For
instance, earth2 has undergone a worldwide pandemic that decimated
the population. In fact, the destruction was so catastrophic that
they have WWII-era-like movie theater propaganda commercials that
tell of the dangers of not getting vaccinated and becoming sick. You
are to report your friends, neighbors, coworkers, even family members
who do get sick. This epidemic was implied as the cause of someone
from this earth getting through The Crossing to earth2 and spreading
a common sickness that this earth has already cured. One world has a
crop problem and can't feed everyone, the other does not. Different
diseases have been cured in different worlds, different wars fought.
But some things that do remain the same: the makeup of the land not
disturbed by war. And that is what this side wants.
This
earth's head ambassador is the father-in-law of Howard's main boss
(nepotism at its finest). He wants the geological surveying of the
land around the San Andreas fault line to see if there's gold there
which I guess is something that the other side would know. Anyway,
they dicker about it for a while and finally come to an agreement.
The
other side of the negotiations are with what earth2's embassy calls
an Inquiry Team. How2 has to convince this inquiry team that this
earth should hold on to Baldwin longer for the reason I said above.
The problem? The other side sent over his ex-wife Emily2 and her new
lover. They weren't supposed to be talking with How2 but with the
ambassador, and also, this is Emily2's first time to the other side.
In what feels wholly strange but also lacks a certain suspense, we
finally see someone passing through The Crossing. And I gotta tell ya
it's... bland. I don't know what I expected but whatever I did expect
was in no way met by this transfer. When they say it's a doorway, it
really was a doorway. Followed by a short hall, punctuated by another
door. It seriously looked like it was filmed in the basement of some
zoo or something. There was some junk down there and a dark, dank
path and before she knew, she was to the other side. No frills. No
amazing music. No magic of the moment whatsoever. The strangest part
to me, however, was that she walked through the hallway first, before
her lover (everyone, apparently has to go through alone), then, when
she got to the other side, I swear that her lover was already there.
So maybe the crossing has some kind of time element to it or maybe
I'm just trying to make a boring show-aspect more interesting.
Anyway,
they talk to How2 and she tells him to give up this fight for Baldwin
to stay because the deal is already done. She then tells him that the
phony rendition (kill) order that came in for him was sent by none
other than that priest guy he talked to in that church and that he
should be super careful about who he trusts. He then gives her a
coded message about lighting a candle for his mother in that same
church when she gets back.
As
the inquiry team heads back, Howard and his second boss are sent to
talk with Baldwin to see if she knows more about the other world's
corruption. She will only talk to Howard because of the death scene
of Nadia from episode two. She, again, says literally nothing of
substance as they talk not about the corruption but about how
different he is from How2 now, but how a person is that person
regardless of circumstances, and that he will eventually turn into
How2. Eh! Whatevs! They get word that the negotiation has gone
through and somehow lawfully walk out of the police station with her
in their custody, even though she killed a police officer. That means
this place must have a ton of power and probably went to someone so
high up in the government to make a call that the very sound of that
person's voice and designation caused the receiver of the call to go
limp. In any case, they load her into a bulletproof van and are
making the short trek back to the crossing at “the embassy” when
a group of mercenaries run by Baldwin's handler in this world shoot
up the van and threaten to blow it up if they don't get her. Under
Howard's pleas for life, they free Baldwin and live another day.
Meanwhile,
Emily2 goes back home, goes into the church and lights the candle in
the exact place that How2 asked her to. Beneath where she lights the
candle she finds a neatly folded letter. She walks to the same cafe
terrace where Howard is seen playing backgammon on earth1. Here, on
earth2 it looks like an abandoned warehouse/factory district. She
starts reading the letter and we hear a voice-over of Emily from our
world. That's right, Emily1 knew How2; in fact, she was his informant
in her world and I guess shared info on possible corruption on our
side. Not only does the episode make the implication that she was
waiting for How2 the night she was struck by the van, but that she
may also have been somewhat of “the other woman” in How2 and
Emily2's relationship back when they were still married. Now that
becomes a bizarre and intriguing question of: Can you really cheat on
your wife with your wife? And you finally start to understand that
this series is supposed to be more philosophical than
action/thriller/suspense-oriented.
After
reading the letter and realizing that How2, after their divorce, was
so in love with her that he was still getting his Emily fix with
Emily1, Emily2 goes back to her apartment. She enters, flicks on the
light, cuts her finger and sucks on the cut a few times. And then she
starts to feel woozy and drops to the floor. From the shadows someone
emerges wearing paper booties so as not to leave a footprint. We
never see this person's face but do see them peel some sort of sticky
goo off the light dial, and empty out all her prescription pill
bottles, staging the scene to make it look like she overdosed. It is
unclear if she is fully dead but her eyes are left open as the unseen
perpetrator exits her apartment. Oh, and back on earth1 How2 has
decided not to go back to earth2, but send Howard instead.
What's
my grade? I give it a solid B for now,
though that could change with the development of the season. This
show is one of those short-season shows, so it will only have ten
episodes, and we're already near a third of the way through the
season. I had started doing this review/recap thinking that it would
be longer and failed to check how many episodes it had (oversight on
my behalf because I've been so busy and distracted). For these kinds
of series I would usually just do an entire-season review/recap, but
here we are. So, what are some good and bad things about this show?
Let's dive in.
First, we can just get this out of the way, J.K. Simmons is terrific. He's been really good in just about everything he's been in back since his 90s stints on Law and Order, so it's to be expected. He convincingly plays the two Howards with enough complexity to make you understand how they are similar (sharing in every detail of their childhood and young adult life), while still being almost completely different. In one scene on episode one it is mentioned that they even have different taste buds somehow because one prefers American food while the other prefers Chinese and as the viewer you don't make a quick leap to doubt this bizarre and ridiculous trait because he makes it believable. And yes it is rather ridiculous, but we will talk about that further down in this review. The point is Simmons plays both characters in an intriguing way that makes Howard a sympathetic everyman and How2 an interesting and complex spy. I've never seen the show Orphan Black but I can only surmise that this is the type of performance that the lead on that show gives too as I have seen people rave about her many roles played.
First, we can just get this out of the way, J.K. Simmons is terrific. He's been really good in just about everything he's been in back since his 90s stints on Law and Order, so it's to be expected. He convincingly plays the two Howards with enough complexity to make you understand how they are similar (sharing in every detail of their childhood and young adult life), while still being almost completely different. In one scene on episode one it is mentioned that they even have different taste buds somehow because one prefers American food while the other prefers Chinese and as the viewer you don't make a quick leap to doubt this bizarre and ridiculous trait because he makes it believable. And yes it is rather ridiculous, but we will talk about that further down in this review. The point is Simmons plays both characters in an intriguing way that makes Howard a sympathetic everyman and How2 an interesting and complex spy. I've never seen the show Orphan Black but I can only surmise that this is the type of performance that the lead on that show gives too as I have seen people rave about her many roles played.
The
atmosphere (cinematography, set design, saturation, overall tone of
the show) is muted and rather bland, almost Wachowskian in nature,
yet not as eye-popping as The Matrix's color palette. Our world, or
the world of Howard is dipped in an olive-green hue similar to the
inside of the Matrix, while How2's world is bathed in blueish tones
similar to the real world outside of the Matrix. I don't know if that
was supposed to be a deliberate callback to that particular work or
if that is just how the show creator and exec producers wanted it
without influence from earlier works, but you can certainly get that
vibe from the entire show so far. Howard was an “office” cog just
like Neo and is only now awakened to the truth while everyone around
him is still, for the most part, asleep in their innocent dreamworld.
Granted, this is/was the plot for many a-movie both before and after
The Matrix, but this feels closer to it. I digress.
My
problem with this show is, essentially, why I'm having such a hard
time trying to review it. It plays almost just like any other
espionage show out there (the ones that take themselves
super-serious) and uses its major conceit both as a driving force,
yet also as a second thought. What do I mean? I mean that even though
you know that you will have characters from two “different”
worlds interacting with their other-world doppelganger, it doesn't
feel like that. After the initial shock of the first episode wears
off, everything seems rather ho-hum concerning the trick of two
worlds. It never pushes the bounds into that truly bizarre and crazy
sci-fi like what it maybe could've been; instead, it takes that one
sci-fi element, sets up a great “what if” and then doesn't feel
like it does much with that. Both with Howard and Baldwin/Nadia they
each adjusted to the idea of another them too quickly, which made the
whole show feel more like it was about long-lost twins rather than a
sleek sci-fi exploration.
And
about that taste buds thing... I'm confused as to how old people are
supposed to be. Follow me here, everyone who existed pre-split 30
years ago all had the same exact life (remember the cell). If we're
going by Howard's age and by what he said about marrying Emily, that
means they were adults when the split happened. Yet, Howard and How2
have completely different taste buds? One would think that as an
adult your taste buds when drastically change so much as for one to
hate the type of food that the other likes, yet they do. How? There's
never a reason given for this other than the split, which, in that
case I'm more inclined to believe that they shouldn't look as similar
then. If they're eating completely different diets that should even
change how they appear. Yes, it's a small detail but it really
distracted me from the plot.
Even
worse, the writing never quite feels like it builds to something
which is probably why it feels like it goes by so fast. OK, so let me
put on my writer cap for a minute. In writing for film and television
there is the thing called the three-act build. First act you
establish a hero, second put that hero into trouble, third make the
trouble bigger and force the hero to rise to the challenge. What most
people don't seem to get is that the second and third act are
supposed to have action. Yes, you want a good climax in the third,
but the second is where the hero was supposed to have already met
and/or been challenged by the villain in some way, making the villain
only more evil in the eyes of the viewer. Now, I know that a lot of
shows are being written as 10+episodic movies, similar to last
summer's Twin Peaks revival, where multiple episodes can count as a
first or second act, but there needs to be some more breakdown of
that within the show. With Howard's and How2's conversation zipping
by so quickly and being of little consequence, and the explanation
for why How2 is on that side of The Crossing coming so late, the
first episode felt like a rush to the end. Then when we do get to the
action-filled end it leaves you with a feeling of, “wait, that's
it?” And not in a good way. Then the second episode only halfway
remedies this but it starts to jump around too much by trying to
incorporate How2's ex-wife into the story. Episode three does well
but there is something so cursory about Howard's existence that he
feels like the least fleshed-out character on an earth1 devoid of any
good fleshed-out characters. At this point they could almost kill
Howard and just follow How2 and I don't know if I'd care.
The
writing is not aggressively smart or funny and it doesn't try to be.
It's simply serviceable. That, combined with the workman-like
directing that both has style and lacks style is so milquetoast that
it doesn't draw you in, but rather leaves you with a feeling of “hm.
That was interesting.” Would I be willing to commit 50 hours of my
life to this show for the next five years based on these three
episodes? Probably not, but it's intriguing for now.
Should
you be watching? If you enjoy espionage, government/corporate
corruption, and/or “accidentally important people” stories, then
yes I would say that you should be watching. And because it airs on
Sunday nights in the winter, it doesn't have much competition from
what I can think of (ABC and NBC are pretty dead, CBS is also a
graveyard, and FOX is younger-skewing with most of their comedies now
and I can't even think of what most cable networks have on). Still,
this won't be for everyone--most people, actually. But it's got
really good acting and, even if the writing has yet to truly pop with
something memorable, it does seem to know exactly where it wants to
go, so you can expect the intrigue to become more entangled and
dangerous as the season continues. Counterpart airs on Starz Sundays
at 9pm EST. Catch up with the series on StarzonDemand or Starz.com.
What
do you think? Have you heard of Counterpart? If you haven't, do you
think you'll tune in now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it?
Do you like it? What's your favorite part of the series? Do you think
Howard will ever become a spy like his Counterpart? Do you think his
wife will ever awake from her coma? Let me know in the comments
below.
Until next time, “I'mma step into
this machine as Steve Urkel... And I'll step out as Stefan Urquelle.”
P.S.
I started to look up an actual quote from the show but didn't feel
like it. I have to go edit my book The Knowledge of Fear again, so...
Yeah. Anyway, I'll try to come up with a better more original
sign-off next time
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