Intelligence and Killer Women both opened their seasons this week. Here are my first impressions.
Intelligence
Intelligence touts Josh Holloway as the lead character, Gabriel Vaughn. He’s a government operative with a computer embedded in his brain and is considered the government’s most valuable asset. It’s on CBS.
Behind this computer-man are Riley Neal (Meghan Ory) as the secret service agent in charge of keeping Vaughn safe and out of enemy hands, and Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger) who is head of the cyber security agency that manages Vaughn.
I am always interested in shows like this that take a look at the direction we are heading with technology. The technology here is dazzling, if unrealistic, and gives the series an awesomeness vibe that should serve it well in future episodes.
In the lead, Holloway is stubbornly human in spite of his computer chip of a brain, which makes the story interesting. Ory is tough and capable and in sympathy with Holloway’s tendency to be human. Helgenberger seemed a bit stiff and stoic, but perhaps that’s a requirement of the role.
It’s an action story with fighting and guns and international intrigue mixed in with the government operations and human interaction. I was happy with the first episode and think it promises to be an interesting ride.
Killer Women
On ABC, Tricia Helfer leads the cast on Killer Women. She’s Molly Parker, a Texas Ranger who works on murder cases where women are the murderers.
Molly is a bundle of complexity, which is always good in a character. She’s trying to get her husband to sign divorce papers while conducting an affair with an FBI guy played by Marc Blucas. (I’ll bet if you counted them all up, Marc Blucas has been the love interest for more leading women in television than any other actor.)
Molly’s living at her brother’s while getting the divorce. The brother (Michael Trucco) may play an important role in the series since he was all over the premier.
Molly is more interested in justice than in closing cases. Get this. She plays the trumpet in a band when she’s not working a case – that’s a new twist on a character.
The shots of Austin and what I assumed are San Antonio looked real, although IMDB says the show was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I saw the Frost Bank building in Austin and the state capitol building in Austin, and the highway scenes showed green vegetation beside the roads – not something you’d see in the New Mexico desert. I sure looks like it was filmed in Texas.
Much as I liked the main character and Tricia Helfer as a Texas Ranger, some of the situations were a little unrealistic. For example, Helfer and Blucas take off to Mexico, completely unofficially, to rescue some people and while there they shoot people without any apparent consequences. Drug cartel people, so shooting them doesn’t count or something – right? Action heroes in movies shoot people without consequences all the time, but I seldom see women doing it.
Killer Women has my interest so far and I’ll continue to watch.
Did you watch either of these premier episodes? What were your impressions?