What I’m Watching: Intelligence

Intelligence: Season 1, Episode 4 (C+)

This episode was by far the least sophisticated installment to date, with too many low-hanging plotlines that really weren’t all that funny. Jerry’s eagerness to bring in a hacker to the intelligence unit should have been a red flag, though his generous offer to take the hit on it if anything went awry was indeed appealing to Christine, who would love nothing more than to embarrass him. Tom was painted as an absurdly perfect person, capable of smelling great with no deodorant and doing gymnastics just for fun. As we see just how much Joseph admires Jerry and yearns for his friendship, it’s brutal to watch him continually get shut down by Jerry in favor of something more attractive. Joseph dying his hair and piercing his own ear to try to be cool was unfortunate, as was his chewing a cigarette because he didn’t have lighter, and it wasn’t even remotely surprising that Tom hacked Barnaby’s presentation. Tuva’s interest in Barnaby’s previous relationship with Mary was probably the most worthwhile part of that entire plotline, and I have a feeling that Jerry’s references to karate during his overzealous preparation were just to please “Friends” fan who enjoyed Ross’ obsession with that martial art. His protective detail couldn’t have been any more useless since he was the one who panicked most when things first started going awry, and the sprinklers going off after Tom signed his name to the chaos was certainly going to reflect poorly on him, had he been concerned with anything else other than getting steaks with his backup pal.