why you should be watching Covert Affairs

[rm]

1. Two strong, complex, hot female characters (Joan and Annie). It won't seem like this at all from the first episode. Or even the second. Stick with it. The women are smart and competent. One of them is even over 30!

2. Do you miss the cracky, cracky absurdity of early S1 Torchwood where anyone could sleep with anyone at any time and all loyalties are in question? This show is threatening to be just that, just without aliens (although no queer content yet -- on the other hand, no sort of "we're faking it with slash goggles" either (unless you wanna write Annie/Joan), which is oddly, somewhat a plus). Again, please trust it past the first fairly terrible episode.

3. Auggie. Auggie's about the most interesting thing the show has going. He may be the agency leak. He may have a thing for Annie. He may be at peace with his blindness (the result of an accident while on a Special Forces mission in Tikrit), but he may not much love his supervisors because of all the crap they don't think he's capable of anymore which leads him to break the rules, a lot).

4. Also Auggie? Is totally smoking hot and gets all the tail ever. Watch the video clip. Check out the tattoo. Hot, hot nerd action. Daaaaaaamn. (Note: Ausiello tagged this entry "free porn;" it's that hot).

5. Come to think of it, the show is really, oddly sex positive. Apparently dating within the agency is really encouraged. See what I mean about the Torchwood factor?

6. Jai (played by Sendil Ramamurthy who could get my attention reading the damn phone book). When he's first introduced it's a bit "oh shit, the villain is the one PoC? character Fuck you." Jai's not the villain (and the show has other PoC characters now). But he has a really interesting backstory and a lot of rivalries with a lot of people. Outcome, seriously unknown.


The show absolutely has problems (and some points of Fail), but each episode has been better than the last. And it's sort of the perfect antidote to White Collar (where no one fucks, but everything is about sex) by being the show where everyone fucks, but it's never about sex.

Comments

[wynkat1313.livejournal.com]

I so did not want to like this show but it keeps sucking me in!

And yes, oh my gods Auggie... there needs to be so much more Auggie in the world. The more i see of him, the more I can't wait to read your Auggie fic. Auggie is just... Auggie.

And again yes, Sendil Ramamurthy and Jai being not all evil as he seems. And lord can that man rock a suit.

Definitely all better than the first episode of doom.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

That clip could convince me.

[rm.livejournal.com]

This is my hope.

[cerulean-sky.livejournal.com]

The one problem I have with the first episode is the whole Joan/Arthur thing. I think it would have been a way more interesting dynamic if the two of them had been really tight and totally ruling the CIA between them and madly in love. (And I am so rarely all about het pairings, but every once in a while one comes by that is just... Right. I am sort of maybe possibly writing a Joan/Arthur fic. Maybe. Possibly.)

Thankfully, someone seemed to catch on after that first weird episode. I seriously love the two of them. If the show had been about them I probably would have watched it too.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I hated them the first episode AND NOW I CARE. It's absurd.

[cerulean-sky.livejournal.com]

Haha! Yeah. Though, really, the whole show could suck and I would probably watch it for the combined awesomeness of Auggie, Joan and Arthur.

Also, I just had a doubletake moment with that video. "What tattoo? Where? Oh, that tattoo there."

[kill.livejournal.com]

I know you mentioned this, but the first 20 minutes are pretty craptastic. Maybe it's Peter Gallagher. I did get reined back in just in time by Christopher Gorham, but sadly I'll have to watch the rest another time since Matt has "zero interest in continuing" after that first 20 minutes. It gets better? Because I trust your judgment.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The first episode is TERRIBLE. But the second is better. The third is good (with a couple of AMAZING scenes towards the end) and the fourth is actually consistent quality.

Really. So much better.

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

How is Piper Perabo's acting, though? Because the one thing that's consistently putting me off this show is that I've never seen her in a role I liked or believed.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Totally fine. The great performances are elsewhere though.

[introductory.livejournal.com]

I watched the first two episodes last night with my family -- my dad is a fan, my mom is not. I really want to like the show -- strong female characters! representation of disabled characters! high-stakes dramatic plots! -- but watching the pilot became a game of spot-the-character-of-color, and I wanted to throw things every time we were reminded of Annie's puka-shell island runaway beau. But I suppose, after reading this, that I will give the show another shot. It's nice to hear that Jai doesn't become the villain after all, and part of me really wants him and Annie to get together. You know, in the interest of intra-agency politics.

[kaffy_r]

I like all the actors in the show, and it seems well-written, but - and this is the old humorless overly political side of me, the side that left me completely uninterested in watching Alias - I cannot suspend my disbelief anywhere near the amount I need to, in order to consider CIA types heroes. I can suspend it for something like Burn Notice, and I can even suspend it for something like Criminal Minds, but CIA-based pretend just doesn't do it for me.

[azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com]

Yep, you nailed it for me too. When I think CIA, drone programmers come right to mind. I understand the fictional convention that those sorts of shows are really fantasy spy agencies, but the genre just never worked for me.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

This last episode, with all that backstory for Jai, was excellent. I enjoyed the show before, but now that I know Jai isn't there as the villain, I can have a little more trust. I'm really looking forward to next week's episode.

And I totally see Annie/Auggie/Jai.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

Totally OT but have you heard about the new discoveries at Caerleon? Thought you might be interested because it was students at Cardiff U. school of archaeology who spotted the new stuff, and isn't that where Patty's going to be? It's interesting to me as a longtime Arthurian buff.

Well, all right, so as not to be totally OT: I don't have time for another TV show, but Sendhil Ramamurthy is really quite amazingly hot.

[bitsyrant.livejournal.com]

I find it hilarious that you wrote this post the day I decided to watch the pilot.

I didn't actually hate it, though most of that goes to Auggie. It's been a while since I've had to work my way around something so... hetero but I'll make do. When Auggie was talking about Perabo's kitten heels I was like "What? I call bullshit!" but then I tried to think of a reason why he would actually know the difference by sound and happily concluded that Auggie does a drag show on the side.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hahahaah. The show gets better (I HATED the first episode and kept watching for Auggie, whose role gets bigger and a lot more interesting in episodes 3 and 4).

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying the show... Auggie is a great character :D

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

I will add the next episode to the dvr queue and give this another shot.

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

Hi - I came over via popfiend :-)

I'm definitely enjoying Covert Affairs, Joan is intriguing and complex, Annie seems kinda "sweet" but turns out to have it going on (taking over the Ferrari, awesome language skills). And Auggie...I must jump on the Auggie bandwagon!!!

And now I just watched that clip.

HOLY CRAP!!!!!

*fanning self briskly*....I'll be in my bunk...

[natf.livejournal.com]

Sadly that is not available in the UK as yet. Maybe Five will take it up along with the CSI and L&O franchises. It may be available on pay-for satelite/Sky but we do not get that either.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

Even more amusing, I could swear that's not the same girl Auggie's in bed with in the season trailer. The one in the trailer looks like she has straight brown hair (unless she decided to straighten her hair between the train to jumping in bed with him).

Trailer currently airing on USA You have to watch closely. It goes by really fast.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your assessment.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

Got a glimpse of the clip in next week's promo, so looks like I was wrong about it being a different woman. Just that her hair had gotten straightened a bit between the train and bed.

So, the big question is if he was sleeping with her in this week's episode and it carries over to next week, or of he was sleeping with someone else. Because I had a wild thought on that, but it's probably not going to be true.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

OMG, my wild thought was actually right.