Agreed. She's absolutely amazing to look at, and man, when I heard her real accent in an interview I think I stopped breathing for a second.
I knew this'd fail as soon as I heard it was about two married spies. Way to not have any will-they-or-won't-they romantic tension, showrunners. I mean, seriously. I'm not a betting man but I might have bet $100 on it not making a second season, even with JJ producing.
It seems like we only want to watch spying on ourselves like on Covert Affairs or Nikita Is it true they had the couple go undercover in North not South Korea?
It's not that unusual. The 60's also had an annoying oversaturation with spy shows (The Man From UNCLE, Wild Wild West, Mission:Impossible, Get Smart, ...) and the usual crapload of crime stuff. Same during the 90's. The episode had them go into the north under the guise of Canadian food relief inspectors. It helps that Boris Kodjoe (the male lead actor) is fluent in English, French and German. That way at least his acting was believable, even if the script wasn't exactly Shakespeare material.
Chuck is a fun show, but it's never remotely been a ratings success. It's lucky to have been on NBC, where anything that isn't a flaming wreck will be renewed. It's still a mystery where the spy show stuff came from. There wasn't any successful example on the air when it all broke upon us. Cover Affairs has since been proven successful, but what spawned it?
mythology storyline of upcoming episodes Undercovers canceled (and wait'll you hear what we may never see) http://blastr.com/2010/11/nbcs-cancels-undercovers.php
Re: mythology storyline of upcoming episodes Ya know, I was never impressed enough with the series' premise or the advertising to tune in to watch. The only reason I paid any attention at all was J.J. Abrams name being attached to the project. But it seems like Abrams may be spreading himself too thin. He's had his name attached to a number of TV projects in the last couple of years that have gone nowhere ("Six Degrees", "What About Brian" and now "Undercovers"). When he's heavily involved with a project it seems to do well, but some of the other projects with his name attached to it aren't exactly the best.
Re: mythology storyline of upcoming episodes So the writers intentionally held off on giving us anything remotely interesting in favor of cardboard cutouts with zero backstory playing spy and expected their audience to wait until 13 episodes in for a big twist? Yeah, that was BRILLIANT.
Re: mythology storyline of upcoming episodes I just hope it won't take another ten years for a network drama to prominently feature to black actors in the leading roles. Still, being a complete cynic, I expect the worst.
Absolutely agree. But the show just didn't have that snap - the linear storytelling, it just didn't make for compelling T.V. The show depended too much on the "mission" story to carry it and the mission was never that great a story. The emphasis should have been on the relationship between Smantha and Steven, and it was just blah. My sister suggested that the show should have begun with us finding out not until the end of the episode, that the Blooms were separated or maybe even divorced - but still with strong feelings for each other. It was like the producers (and maybe the network) were afraid to take any chances with the premise. I continue to think that NBC was hunting for another version of the Cosbys, the Blooms' relationship sort of reminded me of Cliff and Claire - if they'd secretly been spys. Nice try, though. Hope to see Gugu another American show soon. I'd give it a try just to see her.
I share this fear as well. I liked Undercovers. Though I don't think it was necessarily compelling TV, I will miss it. Gugu Mbatha-Raw was amazing. Kodjoe was suave and McRaney was lovingly crusty. Plus, I loved seeing two African-American characters in a 'non-traditional' show and in a not traditional for media anyway relationship (i.e. happy and functional). I also found Leo very annoying. Hoyt was okay. He was no Marshall (Alias), but he was decent. The show had a tough row to hoe and it didn't do itself any favors by not being gripping. There were no really strong villains and I never really felt the Blooms were in danger once. It's mix of comedy and drama didn't work. Perhaps the show would've worked better if the Blooms had been separated or divorced and the espionage game bought them back together with the potential to rekindle their relationship, like gblews was saying. Who knows? Though I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't relieved to see a functional marriage between black characters that had a healthy sex life. Yes, its that bad when it comes to the depictions of black relationships/love in the media for me. It's a shame though that the show never caught on or got to find its footing. I hope its failure doesn't continue to relegate black characters to two-dimensional bosses, sidekicks and best friends or stereotypical drug dealers/users, prostitutes, and degenerates on TV. The fact that Undercovers was perhaps the first TV drama (since DS9 perhaps) to have two physically attractive black leads who were both professionals and married is pretty telling about the history and the current state of American TV. Unfortunately I don't have high hopes that we'll get to see a better stab at casting blacks in lead roles not related to stereotypically black themes for quite some time.