Director: Tim Matheson
Starring: Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham, Kari Matchett, Eric Lively, Anne Dudek, Peter Gallagher, George Tchortov, Eion Bailey, Emmanuelle Vaugier
Music: Christopher Tyng

Covert Affairs is the latest spy series to go to air, and the general consensus appears to be that the show is extremely enjoyable. But already quite a few people are comparing it to Alias – and taking nothing away from the star of the show, Piper Perabo, she does look just a little too similar to Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow in Alias. The thing is, Alias was such a popular show, and through that, Garner had such a following, that it is going to be a big ask for Covert Affairs to break out of that shadow and stand on its own. That aside, it looks like the show will have a lot to offer spy fans, and I think that there is enough room to manouvre for the producers and writers to create a fine television series.

The pilot episode begins Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) undertaking a lie detector test to see if she is suitable material for the CIA. The interrogator asks her some questions of a personal nature and about her past, which she seems slightly uncomfortable with. Her last serious relationship was with a man named Ben who she met in Sri Lanka. After a whirlwind love affair, lasting all of three weeks, Ben disappeared leaving behind a cryptic note saying ‘the truth is complicated – Forgive me’. Annie was pretty cut up about Ben running out. She truly thought he was the one. After bumming around the globe on a tourist visa for a while, Annie returns to the United States and decides that a career in the CIA is for her.

Now two years later, Annie is at a CIA training facility known as ‘the Farm’. With a month of training still to go, she is pulled out of ‘the farm’ and sent to Headquarters at Langley. The DPD (Domestic Protection Division) need a new operative who can speak Russian – and Annie happens to be fluent in six languages.

A Russian assassin named Stas wants to cross over to the United States. In exchange for being granted asylum in the West, he has offered to provide large amounts of quality top-secret intel. Annie has been chosen to be the liaison for the CIA, and to bring Stas over to the West.

At Langley, Annie is introduced to a swag of operatives – who it could assumed that most will become regulars, week to week over the series. The Head of the DPD division is Joan Campbell (Kari Matchett), who just so happens to be married to the divisional Head of the OCS (Office of Clandestine Services), Arthur Campbell (Peter Gallagher). Furthermore Joan suspects that Arthur is having an affair, and she uses CIA resources to spy on him.

Next we have Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), who is the Tech Ops (high-tech/gadget) guy at the DPD. The nice twist here is that Auggie is blind – so obviously he isn’t going to be participating in many action scenes (although, there is an amusing part where he accompanies Annie to the morgue to identify a body). As a fairly office bound character, what Auggie says is more important than what he does. In that sense, he performs two functions in the show – firstly serving as a mentor figure (or voice of reason) for Annie, and secondly as comic relief -thankfully not at the character’s expense due to his visual impairment, but rather in spite of it.

Then there is Conrad (Eric Lively), who is the smooth ‘ladies man’ who befriends Annie, as she arrives at Headquarters – this guy is fast – she hasn’t even entered the building and he is weaving his magic. He also works for Arthur Campbell in the OSC division. As the series progresses, there are more characters to be introduced, but that is a start, and as you can imagine, the CIA is a pretty bitchy place to work – never knowing who to trust. Especially when each character’s day to day life entails lying, and manipulating of the truth, you’ve got to expect some of that to rub off in their interactions with their work colleagues – right? But Covert Affairs isn’t all about inter-office rivalries – there’s some action and shootouts in the show too – so I’ll get back to telling you about Annie’s mission – and said ‘action and shootouts’.

So Annie has to meet with a Russian assassin and receive his top-secret intel – via a suped up blackberry. Her cover is to pose as a call girl, and meet her ‘client’ at an upmarket Hotel in Washington DC. Annie is paged, and makes her way up to the room. Inside is the Russian assassin, Stas, who seems to be intent on having a good time at the US tax payers expense (and if he had his way, with Annie too). But finally she convinces him to get down to business, and they sync their blackberries, and Stas sends over the intel. But before Annie can leave, a hail of bullets shatter the window. Stats is shot, and Annie scrambles clear, fearing for her life. She makes it to safety, but unfortunately she has left her blackberry and the top-secret information behind (and her high-heel shoes). It’s not a good start to her career as a CIA agent. But Annie is made of much sterner stuff than that, and with Auggie’s help, concocts a plan to put it all right.

It’s hard to judge a series solely on the first episode. The pilot episode can in fact be the only good episode, with all the others falling into a predictable pattern week after week. I don’t think that will be the case here. Enough forethought and planning appear to have gone into the characters to provide at  least a series worth of twists and turns and duplicitous subplots. There is a little mystery which is setting itself to be the main story arc which takes place over many episodes (much like the ‘who burned Michael Weston’ question in Burn Notice). I am sure it will be dragged out for as long as possible to keep viewer interest up.

All in all, I found Covert Affairs to be very entertaining. Will it become another Burn Notice or Alias? Time will tell.