CBS's much-hyped mid-season drama "Intelligence" debuted earlier this week to so-so ratings. It stars Josh Holloway (Sawyer on "Lost") as Gabriel Vaughn, an ex-Special Forces operative who has been implanted with a chip that allows him to connect directly to the Internet and access all kinds of information, as well as to "render" 3-D depictions of locations based on such information (with a bit of help from his subconscious). Meghan Ory (Ruby/Red Riding Hood on "Once Upon a Time") stars as Riley Neal, a Secret Service agent reassigned to protect/mind Vaughn. Marg Helgenberger (from "CSI") rounds out the cast as the director of the U.S. Cyber Command agency to which Vaughn is attached.
It sounds a lot like NBC's "Chuck" -- guy with super-information access; woman protector. I didn't watch "Chuck," but I get the sense that was almost a straight comedy/parody, whereas "Intelligence" takes itself seriously. There are attempts to lay the groundwork for longer arcs/serialized mysteries, primarily that Vaughn's wife, another government operative, was believed to have been killed during the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which she apparently aided. Vaughn has been trying to disprove her traitorous turn. . . .
This guy Vaughn has got to be the ACLU's worst nightmare. He can effortless summon all kinds of information on virtually anyone, including driver's licenses, court records, and so on. On top of it, unlike Chuck, Vaughn is quite capable of taking care of himself physically or with a gun, so he's kind of like Jack Bauer and Chloe O'Brien (with computer connection) rolled into one!
Anyway, I thought it was okay. Since I did quite a bit of pruning of my watch list in the fall, I'm sticking with the season pass for now, but I will say that it's coasting much more on the goodwill built up by the main actors from their previous shows.
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