The cast, especially FW and JG, is so much better than the material they've been given to work with.
Well, and as much as most of us bitched about The Fight and how it sort of sloppily served as the de facto pilot for the new show, it's amazing to me to recall how much more personality & distinction the characters had, even sharing time with the regular cast members. They each had their place on the team and we even had a bit of backstory in there: Prophet was the ex-con/technowizard, the latter of which has been downplayed a great deal by Penelope's addition to the cast which is peripheral at best, which is a crime perpetrated on the character; Rawson was the ex-military sniper; Gina's the young agent, out of the academy, dealing with disappointing her father by not having gone to West Point, and Cooper's the brilliant rebel, an interesting amalgam of Rossi & Gideon.
And we got all that from that one ep. At this point, it's standing as a monument to brilliant storytelling.
Long-winded way of saying I agree with you on the writing.
I finally watched the first two CM:SB eps last night, and they were nothing better than "meh." FW is already starting to grate on my nerves, but it's nice seeing JG on my tv screen.
I missed the previous ep--did y'all comment then on the villain being the "Opulence, I has it" guy? [link] He didn't get to kiss a tiny giraffe here, but I liked his scene with Prentiss, lots of understated menace.
That's where I knew him from! No wonder he's doing an Irish accent by way of Russia.
That scene was quite good. I especially enjoyed Prentiss's comment on where exactly her Glock was aimed.
THAT'S why he looked so familiar! Thank You!
I love Paget Brewster and her snarky delivery.
Sebastian Roche has been in a bunch of Canadian stuff, including Odyssey 5, and a great turn on the U.S. Touching Evil, back when he was married to Vera Farmiga.
I remember seeing him in an ep of L&O (mothership) once. Or, maybe it was L&O:CI? Can't remember which.
He also had a nice multi-episode guest star turn on Fringe. He's a charismatic dude. Good at that whole ambiguously good/evil stuff with just the right amount of dissipation about him. I keep waiting for someone to cast him on a new series with some SF leaning (one that lasts longer than half a season as O5 did) 'cause he's a fangirl catnip waiting to happen.
