Up and Out From "Undercovers"

A couple of quick thoughts on the new J.J. Abrams-produced spy series "Undercovers." I've seen two episodes now and I find it enjoyable so far, but I can see some potential issues here. The series follows a husband and wife pair, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and Samantha Bloom (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who used to be spies in the past, and are now called back into service by a deadpan G-man named Shaw ("Major Dad" himself, Gerald McRaney). When the Blooms aren't jet-setting to exotic locales to save the world, they run a catering service that resembles a kitchen fixtures catalog. There are also two comic relief characters to inject zipper humor at appropriate intervals. One is Samatha's sister Lizzy (Mekia Cox), who works at the catering service and comes off as a good-natured basket case. The other is Bill Hoyt (Ben Schwartz), the pair's tech support on their missions, who has a serious case of hero-worshiping mancrush on Steven.

"Undercovers" is primarily a romantic comedy, with a lot of action-adventure elements provided by the Blooms' globetrotting adventures to picture-perfect foreign cities. The show literally uses postcards to demarcate changes in scenery, though it's pretty obvious that a few domestic locales are filling in for the bulk of them. The tone is light, and darker, grittier elements are kept to a minimum. Though the action set pieces are impressive, I never thought for a moment that anyone was in any real danger. The humor is gentle, the action elements are exciting, and the lovey-dovey behavior of the happily married couple is designed to elicit warm and fuzzy feelings. The descriptor I keep associating with "Undercovers" is old fashioned. The Blooms feel more like Hepburn and Tracy than "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." The only thing really edgy or distinctive about the series is that the leads are black - both played by excellent African-European actors.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with going for light and fluffy. After so many series where the heroes are miserable and angst-ridden, it's nice to have one where the leading lovebirds get to be happy together, and subvert a lot of cliches in the process. "Undercovers" is a very easy watch, the performances are good, the characters are likable, and the production values are great so far. Still, I wonder if it can hold the broader audience's interest for long without a little more drama and tension. The first episode was rife with meaningful glances and teasing banter that pinged as cute rather than sexy. There was no real ongoing conflict in the premise that I could see, no big conspiracies or mysteries set up for us to follow. The Blooms were resolved to balance their spy lives with their normal lives, and learn to work together as partners in the field. There were some marginal concerns about keeping Lizzy in the dark about their newly active spy status, but nothing I could see sustaining a full storyline.

More promising was the introduction of Leo Nash (Carter MacIntyre), a fellow spy and ex-boyfriend of Samantha's who has a shady side. As of the second episode he'll be the third wheel to the Blooms' dynamic duo. Some might take his inclusion - and that of the other prominent Caucasian supporting actors - as proof of the network's reluctance to entrust "Undercovers" entirely to its minority leads. However, Nash is the only element that might introduce some real drama into the current status quo of the Bloom's lives, so he's a necessary presence. I'm hoping for a female counterpart from Sam's past to to show up too, because the show could use a recurring villain or antagonist to add a little more visceral danger. As of now, "Undercovers" is the kind of show I would have watched with my parents twenty years ago - soft-edged and very safe. The comparisons with "Hart to Hart" are dead on.

I don't feel "Undercovers" is a show I'd make an effort to follow regularly from week to week, but it's certainly something that I would recommend to people who need a break from the paranoid puzzles of "Fringe" or the whiplash snark of "Glee." It's a good one to relax and decompress with, that lets its grown-up characters be mature grown-ups, and is a nice reminder to the youth-oriented culture that adventure and excitement and romance don't end when you get married. We have so many doctor and lawyer and police and dysfunctional family shows, I hope "Undercovers" sticks around so we can maintain a little diversity in our programming - in more ways than one.