Thursday, September 13, 2012

What I’m Watching: Covert Affairs


Covert Affairs: Season 3, Episode 9 “Suffragete City” (C+)

It’s hard to get truly invested in an episode in which the main character of a show is about to either die of gunshot wounds or be executed by her government. The speediness with which the CIA wanted to dispose of Annie seemed highly unnecessary and purposefully negligent, creating a false sense of urgency on a show that is usually quite capable of producing thrills with legitimate backing. Instead, we were treated to the oft-invoked device of an extended dream in which Annie reasoned out that Lena was the guilty one which she was unconscious. The shot of animated blackbirds emerging from beneath her dress was extremely over-the-top and just silly. She had quite a rude awakening from her imagined journey, as Lena rather gruesomely tried to suffocate her while pretending to do CPR. Auggie deserves a medal as the best blind detective around (there used to be a show about that!), and Lena could have toned down her lavender perfume for once and driven a car other than her own, knowing that it might be caught on camera. Arthur’s exuberance at Annie waking up seemed ill-fitting considering he was ready to have her decommissioned as a traitor only moments earlier, and it would also seem logical for CIA procedure to be to immediately seize a suspected traitor before taking casual phone calls from the hospital. Let’s hope that a return to consciousness for Annie will help put this show back on the right track and continue an otherwise rather entertaining and engaging season.

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