"Covert Affairs" Review: These Characters Are Welcome

We’ve seen the tough and sexy female spy show before. But when that show is on USA, it’s bound to be a little different.

After all this is the network where characters are welcome…

The female spy is Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) and the show is “Covert Affairs.” Annie is in the CIA training program when she is suddenly called into action for an important case. She immediately discovers the CIA is not a normal place to work and she has to figure out how to balance her secret not normal life with her normal family life living with her sister, who’s on a mission to fix her up.

Annie’s tour guide at the CIA is Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), a blind techie. Her ice queen boss is Joan (Kari Matchett), the head of the super-secret Domestic Protective Division. Joan’s husband is Arthur (Peter Gallagher), the director of Clandestine Services.

Annie appears to have been fasttracked because of her language skills. But a twist in the final act gives us a hint of another reason. It’s a good twist that makes it possible to look over the silly subplot of Joan using the resources of the CIA to try and catch Arthur in an affair.

Perabo is a great lead and the supporting players are perfectly cast. I was afraid that Auggie being blind was going to get old, but it actually worked for the entire hour mostly due to Gorham’s portrayal. Plus, the action scenes are solid.

This show has lots of promise, it just needs to flesh out the characters a little more. I understand the idea of showing the personal lives of the agents, but there needs to be more of a balance.

And I think watching our tax dollars being used to monitor a possibly cheating husband’s phone calls instead of chasing terrorists is not what any of us want to see…

“Covert Affairs” premieres Tuesday, July 13th at 9 p.m. on USA…

Photo Credit: Christopher Kalohoridis/USA