PILOT REVIEW: The Enemy Within

THE ENEMY WITHIN

Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Morris Chestnut, Raza Jaffrey, Kelli Garner, Cassandra Freeman, Noah Mills

Created by Ken Woodruff
Written by Ken Woodruff, Directed by Mark Pellington

IN SHORT: In Case You Want Another The Blacklist or Blindspot.

THE PREMISE:
The Enemy Within sort of functions as a reverse of The Blacklist, from a gender standpoint. Erica Shepherd (Jennifer Carpenter) was a brilliant CIA Deputy Director of Operations until she was arrested for Espionage by FBI agent Will Keaton (Morris Chestnut). Three years later, FBI and CIA agents are under attack and the FBI must bring Shepherd out from her jail cell to assist them in figuring out what is going on. Rounding out the main cast includes fellow FBI agent Daniel Zain (Raza Jaffrey) and tech girl Kate Ryan (Kelli Garner).

THE REVIEW:
The Enemy Within started with a bang. The initial scene showing Shepherd's arrest followed the simultaneous attacks on FBI and CIA agents was pretty thrilling and reminiscent of those other Monday 10pm dramas and their captivating starts. This one may not have been as engaging as The Blacklist's welcome to James Spader or the very memorable "tattooed naked girl in Times Square" start to Blindspot but it was pretty intense nonetheless. After that though, it settled into a much more predictable drama that took itself far too seriously (I lost count of the number of slow motion moments the pilot employed) and seems very prone to going off the rails very soon.

One of the biggest problems is they seem to have already taken a lot of the edge off of the premise of the show by revealing the reasons behind Erica's seeming espionage. Now we already know that she isn't really a spy but instead was (surprise, surprise) protecting her kid. For a show that billed itself in the promos and the first half of the episode that she was a potential terrorist, this was a pretty quick reveal and not a satisfying one at that.

The cast ranges from serviceable to unmemorable. On the serviceable side is Morris Chestnut, who plays a believable FBI agent but there's nothing he does here that hasn't been done by tons of other actors in these types of roles over the years. On the unmemorable side is Jennifer Carpenter, who does not have any type of charisma and doesn't quite seem like a steely criminal or a caring mother. A more dynamic performance in this role could elevate the entire show (case in point: Spader in The Blacklist). The pilot ended with probably the most predictable twist to end a pilot that I've seen in awhile.

BOTTOM LINE:
I don't really know why NBC keeps trying these kind of shows. Yes, there was the gold standard with The Blacklist but since then we have seen rapid declines (Blindspot) or DOA results (State of Affairs). I think this one will be closer to DOA with much less of a hook than some other 10pm dramas that have aired in recent years.