Covert Affairs (TV Series) Trompe Le Monde (2013) User Reviews

you catch a tiger, you put it in a cage...

[RavenGlamDVDCollector · 9/10 · 27 March 2019]

...you catch a tigress, you put a collar on her... The monumental goof here... Old Henry Wilcox is not stupid. Neither would the Chinese Ministry of State Security be. And this show is realistic. So it seems ludicrous that Annie is allowed to sit there, poised to strike really (okay, she was acting timid, but I repeat, Henry is not stupid, he knows she is a thousandfold dangerous) Some form of restraint should have been shown, but of course, Annie is trained to overcome this...

And there at the end, the Chinese close in, she is virtually in their clutches, escape seems unlikely... but yet, next we see, she is on that boat...ah, episode time was simply running out and this was the last in the season...

All of this said, doesn't change that I enjoyed watching. Great performance by Piper, and now I'm gonna say something no other IMDb reviewer ever would... Gregory Itzin, marvelous, marvelous!

Finale at last ... what future?

[joel9944 · 10/10 · 23 November 2013]

Edit: 2018-July-19

Watched the series again on DVD 5 years later and find my original comments on Season 4 below, written at broadcast time, overly critical and off-base. Would delete, but the system doesn't allow.

Back then, I lost track of some of the plot threads running over weeks, especially with the long mid-season hiatus. Watching the episodes closer together, the season does make sense and is really outstanding.

--- Good finale, but I hope the show gets back on track. The surprise of Season 4 was that Piper Perabo agreed to come back next year for Season 5 after the foundations of the show and her character were nuked.

Annie Walker originally knew 6+ languages. How many words did she even speak during all of season 4? How many weren't mostly babble? Did she smile even once all season? Bit of a waste.

Arthur & Joan's careers were trashed just as they developed plot momentum. In return, we have unemployed Joan and Arthur with a baby. Dramatic gold for a spy show about the CIA! Oh yeah! You can almost hear the brain-trust running the show thinking "now we can do shows about how having a baby affects spies -- it'll be awesome!"

Just imagine the writer's bull sessions for season 4:

Writer #1:"Let's see.. Arthur, one of our main characters who anchors the show, has been building his career to the highest levels of the CIA for 30 years"

Writer #2:"Wouldn't it be cool if he just threw it all away and resigned? That will really open up way more story-lines than if he was appointed ambassador to China, or continued in the CIA"

Write #1: "Why would he throw away a 30+ year career?"

Writer#2: "I've got it! He has a secret son who's also a spy. If he throws away his career, that will somehow save his son!"

Write #1: "Cool!! That's like family values. That will be great because good stories are always about families. So it will be a good story!"

Good-girl Annie now has a body count that needs a calculator to total up, mostly pointless throw-away drama with a wildly implausible "super-villain".

The show has a bad habit of developing a plot idea, then before it can be really developed, abandoning it for a less interesting plot idea. Rinse and repeat in a downward lurch. The exception was Season 4, where they picked a weak plot idea and totally committed to it instead of abandoning it, dragging it out for 16 episodes instead of the ~3 it might have actually supported.

Any vaguely realistic depiction of the CIA is gone. Maybe the magic wand will wave and Humpty Dumpty will be reassembled, but the show seems to have lost any concept of what its about.

Best episodes were still the season 1 pilot (the new hire concept) and the one where Annie first cranked it up a notch and recruited the asset in Yemen (persuasion and seduction). Of course there were many (many) other arguably great episodes in seasons 1-3, those were just two stand-outs. Her strength as a spy is an ability to charm and persuade and develop relationships.

Season 4 suddenly decided she was Jason Bourne. Skulking around the streets with a scowl on her face and getting into fist-fights with burly guys while waving a hand cannon around. What little dialog she had was mind-numbing, as if Annie's IQ had dropped 50 points from Season 3. The big Season 4 close? "It's nice here on the water." <- now that's big-time writing!

I did notice the curious role inversion between Henry and Annie. When he had her in Lexington/HK, he snaps at her "It doesn't matter" (being cut off from support) and she responds, "it always matters". Then in the penultimate scene, they switch lines, with Annie saying "It doesn't matter" (how she found him) and Henry responds "It always matters".

Later, she sadly walks out into the market, pausing in front a sign in the background that says "Nowhere Fast".

Annie Walker would have a problem as a spy in that she couldn't move about unnoticed. Every guy she passed on the street would remember encountering one of the world's most beautiful women. There would be people stopping and staring.

Piper Perabo no doubt has difficulty going out in public and has a large array of glasses and hats and coats and tricks to look plain for out-and-about. But "super-spy" Annie Walker hangs out in junkyards and markets like someone who just did a shoot for Vogue.

Not a complaint, just saying that as a spy, she could not be effective in the field as a covert "fists-of-fury" operative ala Season 4. But in terms of persuasion and seduction (both intellectual and physical) she could be effective and believable if not unstoppable. The fact they spent all season going against the character they established was a problem.

Season 4: Still falls short of its aspiration to be darker due to weak writing and some lacking performances; use of locations remain awesome though

[bob the moo · 15 January 2014]

When Covert Affairs started a few years ago it was a very simple affair with limited budget and an approach that seemed to very much want to be a slick and fun little piece about a very well dressed and attractive woman in the CIA. The second season saw that model refined a little with a lot more money and then the third season moved into more serious territory as the show decided to be more of a thriller. With the fourth season we very much continue this journey and it is made evident very early on because the title sequence (one of the last links to the initial tone of the show) is now also gone, replaced by words on a black screen.

The plot this time sees Henry Wilcox trying to use Annie to help expose some shady dealings involving Arthur, in particular his supposed links to a terrorist organization working in South America. From here things get a little more complicated as roles and actions that seem clear are subject to change and all the time the weasely Henry Wilcox seemed to be involved or manipulating things somehow. The season 4 narrative relies very much on plot points, with lots of changing ground all the time which creates a constant overall plot even though people come and go. It sort of works and sort of doesn't. Although it is more serious, it is still not the tightest show and because it doesn't grip the viewer, it does feel a little relaxed wandering through all its plots and turns. I'm not suggesting 24 is perfect, but Covert Affairs does fall short of it despite clearly trying to become that sort of darker spy thriller and still be network friendly entertainment.

It does still work though and generally I like the direction it is continuing to move – I just wish that it would really embrace it because at times it feels very superficial. So the plot is all about events and devices, which keeps things moving but lacks a bit of depth. The writing remains a bit clunky in dialogue and plot. The biggest change in that way is the show is allowed to say "shit" a few times each episode and you can feel the writers working out where to use their quota. The writing of the characters is also inconsistent and some things occur totally out of context with the people and situations – these things provide plot points, but they don't convince in the world we have been put in. President Loga- sorry, Henry Wilcox, is the worst for the "plot device" thing as he spends most of the season drifting in and out like the ghost of the narrative, nudging the show onwards before becoming its core. It engages and is entertaining enough but it never really gets up a consistent head of steam and it never quite has the dramatic impact that it could have done. A part of this is where the show comes from – because it still pretty much has the same cast, same wardrobes etc as it did when it was lighter and more fun.

The cast here are mixed but Perabo continues to be good. She is good in the serious stuff and I think whatever they give her to do she can do. Gorham not so much, he doesn't seem to have much range and is not helped by having close to zero romantic chemistry with Perabo. Meanwhile Gallagher, Matchett, Harper and others are just left with narrative to deliver more than characters. Itzin is good as a presence and he works well with Perabo despite not being allowed to make as much of an impact as he could have done. The comparisons between Henry and Annie give a nice theme but again it is one not fully explored. The strongest part of the show remains its look and use of locations; yet again the show really makes the most of places with plenty of great locations which are well used. The "shooting tour" takes us into South America but also into Europe again and then Hong Kong. Ultimately great locations cannot cover for weaknesses in the writing, but it does add weight to the show and make it work better than the same script being entirely on soundstages.

Anyway, this fourth season sees Covert Affairs continue to go for a darker dramatic tone but it still doesn't quite get there, with the delivery mostly being a matter of "good but could be better" in almost every regard apart from location. It is interesting to see this and Burn Notice be popular as lighter fare but then try to shift to something else; Covert Affairs does it more successfully than Burn Notice, but it still needs more sharpness and tightness in the writing and the structure – not just on the surface but below as well.

Wow...

[PatrickS77 · 5/10 · 1 February 2021]

So that was the finale. Annie shoots the bad guy after all. Had she not messed up Teo's chance to kill him in Copenhagen, he and many others would still be alive and the season could have ended at episode 9. Thus those extra 7 episodes are a bit pointless. Seriously, why does the character think she is allowed to kill the bad guy, but wouldn't give others the same chance to stop him. Especially since he was behind the death of Teo's mother!? At least those extra episodes were somewhat fun to watch, even though story wise they seem a bit redundant and artificially drawn out.