Intelligence - A Pilot Review

To start a note. I don't really want this blog to turn into a list of reviews of tv episodes. Yes I watch a lot of tv, this is because I love long stores. My favourites are always going to be television, comics and long book series over something shorter. But it's hard to tell whether a television show is worth your time. Especially in these days when most of them barely last five minutes. So here is a brief discussion of the television show Intelligence which started last week:

Cast: Josh Holloway as Gabriel Vaughn
         Meghan Ory as Riley Neal

Premise In One Sentence: Intelligence operative has computer chip installed in his brain.

Intelligence is probably the least original tv series I have ever seen. It's part Chuck, part Six Million Dollar Man and part every spy show ever on television. The premise is simple, that Gabriel Vaughn has a computer chip installed in his brain that allows him to connect directly to the internet. I'm guessing it'll do more than that but that's the basics. The opening sequence sees him visualizing a crime scene using this ability and is exceptionally well visualised. It looks suspiciously like the trailer for Quantum Break at times though that could just be the individual walking through a freeze frame involving broken glass. It does look like a television equivalent of the bomb investigation scene from Iron Man 3. This then follows up later on with an great sequence in a UV paintball arena where Gabriel uses satellite footage to pinpoint enemies. This looked really cool considering how little budget it actually took to produce. The action sequences themselves are all too brief but show the potential to be Arrow levels of good. And more of John Billingsley, Phlox in Star Trek: Enterprise, is always good.

But not all is well. Some of the direction in the opening pilot is amateurish at best. There are some really strange shot choices and the cuts are a little erratic at first, though it does seem to settle as the episode goes on. But this is a minor problem. Intelligence is an ironic title coz this show kinda treats you like an idiot. It's plot is riddled with every cliche in the book: Secret Service agent gets job she didn't want, Hairy/Beardy tech nerd assistant, Handler & Asset not getting along, an ex going bad, a girl killing her abusive step father. These are all things we've seen before. There's very little that is new in the pilot. There's also an annoying habit of having to spell everything out in words of one syllable or explain things twice. Hopefully this is just some heavy handed introducing in the pilot and it doesn't continue into the series.

Recommending Intelligence isn't an easy ask. Is it terrible? No it's not. Is it the amazing pilot that 2014 needed to start with? No. But it has a premise that could work really well in long running television. Is made reasonably well and makes a good counterpoint to Person of Interest. Speaking of PoI, with both shows being on the same US television network does anyone else see the two shows crossing over at some point? Personally I think this would be great. The show started to great numbers last week but I expect a very drastic drop for episode 2. It has a good premise that needs to be exploited a little more. I'd like it to go in a more Cyberpunk direction than a 24 direction but I'm not sure that will happen. For now Intelligence is worth a watch. It's not great but it could become great. One to keep an eye on for now.

Rating: 6.6/10