I've seen 3 episodes now and while the show brings nothing new to the genre it's sort of enjoyable so far.
There are some issues however.
1) Casting - Ashley Judd, Nick Eversman and Italian Interpol guy perform well but I can't say much for the rest of the cast. Cliff Curtis is normally solid but seems to be acting in a soapie here. The actress playing Mary is not convincing and her character is woeful and annoying. The blonde baddie chick on the boat has 3 accent changes per minute, all of them bad. Must be someone's girlfriend to get this role.
2) Scenery - if you are the director shooting a scene in Rapallo, then stick to Rapallo. Don't go panning shots in San Margharita or Portofino unless of course you are getting a kickback from the local tourist bureau.
3) Plot - we are expected to suspend belief with this sort of genre but seriously, a housewife who is 10 years out of the CIA can take out 2 hulks on the boat with single karate chops.
She has 6 or more current passports.
The baddies take out the blonde colleague who is performing badly rather than Ashley Judd.
The boat auction - starting bid for the average size boat is 24 Million Euros which rises to 100 million, This was a large runabout worth about 200K. Plus, no one was allowed to look inside the boat.
It's all a bit silly but I am intrigued to find out why the husbands killer would want to kidnap the son 10 years later. Maybe the husband is not dead which would give rise to even more logic gymnastics. I hope they don't jump the shark or even worse, drag it on for "Lost" proportions before they arrive at some inadequate finale.
The benchmark in the last year for spy thrillers (in my opinion) is "Homeland" and this is not close.
There are some issues however.
1) Casting - Ashley Judd, Nick Eversman and Italian Interpol guy perform well but I can't say much for the rest of the cast. Cliff Curtis is normally solid but seems to be acting in a soapie here. The actress playing Mary is not convincing and her character is woeful and annoying. The blonde baddie chick on the boat has 3 accent changes per minute, all of them bad. Must be someone's girlfriend to get this role.
2) Scenery - if you are the director shooting a scene in Rapallo, then stick to Rapallo. Don't go panning shots in San Margharita or Portofino unless of course you are getting a kickback from the local tourist bureau.
3) Plot - we are expected to suspend belief with this sort of genre but seriously, a housewife who is 10 years out of the CIA can take out 2 hulks on the boat with single karate chops.
She has 6 or more current passports.
The baddies take out the blonde colleague who is performing badly rather than Ashley Judd.
The boat auction - starting bid for the average size boat is 24 Million Euros which rises to 100 million, This was a large runabout worth about 200K. Plus, no one was allowed to look inside the boat.
It's all a bit silly but I am intrigued to find out why the husbands killer would want to kidnap the son 10 years later. Maybe the husband is not dead which would give rise to even more logic gymnastics. I hope they don't jump the shark or even worse, drag it on for "Lost" proportions before they arrive at some inadequate finale.
The benchmark in the last year for spy thrillers (in my opinion) is "Homeland" and this is not close.