What I’m Watching: Covert Affairs

Covert Affairs: Season 1, Episode 6 “Houses of the Holy” (B)

I’ll admit that this was one operational setup that never quite grabbed me from its inception, as opposed to the plotlines in the previous two episodes. That doesn’t mean it was necessarily bad; rather it wasn’t as engaging as the show has been recently. What I do like, however, is the undercover work that was begun at the beginning of this episode when all of the agents were sent in to infiltrate the staff teams of different senators. We only got to see Annie, of course, but her work does make it fairly interesting, much more so than something like a soccer player with a tricky sister. The casting of the senator and his wife in this episode was fun, featuring D.W. Moffett, of “Friday Night Lights” and “Hidden Palms” fame, with a silly accent as the senator, and Lauren Holly, initially unrecognizable to me because she had more hair than she had when she exited “NCIS,” as his treacherous wife. Having Annie spot her sister’s husband somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be was a nice subplot, though of course it does beg the obvious “Alias” comparison, reminiscent of when Sydney ran into Charlie while on a mission and had to confront him about his extracurricular activities and his relationship with Francie. One line from Joan that stuck with me was “Just for a moment, let’s be two women who are married to powerful men.” Auggie’s operation was interesting, but I must point out that these people need to have better control of their operations, most specifically knowing when a team has already gone radio silent and calling off a mission is too late.