TV Series Lounge

Auggie owns this episode!

Episode 7 of Covert Affairs season 2 titled “Half a World Away” showed basically the history of Auggie. Did we enjoy it? Of course! Very well done episode.

With Auggie taking center stage, viewers – and Annie – finally learned how this tech went blind. This has been on Annie’s mind over the last year or so almost as much as mine.

It was the grand scale of the material that made “Half a World Away” such a great episode, along with such a platform for Gorham to steal the show once again.

In essence, he was playing two characters. These were two extremely different versions of the same guy. In every flashback sequence, he became the freewheeling Captain Anderson of the Special Forces; a shirtless, short-haired, football-playing, sighted Auggie that was hard not to love just as much as the 2011 version. In real-time, he was a man on a mission, in search of the individual that blinded him way back when.

The flashback scenes gave the audience a care free man, on who loved his team – and then lost them in a matter of minutes. That sequence, when the squad came upon the safe house and Auggie took out each bad guy one at a time, was as suspenseful as it gets. We all knew that it was going to end with Captain Anderson getting blinded, but the anticipation it created was still brilliant.

The modern day moments gave us an Auggie that so badly wanted to get back at the man that not only blinded him, but maybe more importantly, killed his entire team. And boy was it easy to sympathize with him, as he told Annie he appreciated everything she had done for him. He then told her goodbye just before heading out to find his blinder.

Although it may have been a bit obvious that Auggie wasn’t going to stab the eyes out of – and/or kill – his opponent after besting him in the cargo plane wrestling match, it was still gratifying to see him win that match. Blind. The Auggie we have grown to know and love wasn’t going to go as far as possible because he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about it. Gorham showed all of this with a simple gesture of putting his knife away.

Maybe it’s just that I am a big Gaslight Anthem fan, but We Did It When We Were Young was just the perfect song choice to overlay Auggie walking out from the plane in all of his glory. I had chills.

While most of the characters not named Auggie Anderson didn’t have much or anything going on in the episode, Annie still had a few great moments. Whether it was helping him over the phone, or rehashing everything that went down over a few beers upon Auggie’s return, she kept “Half a World Away” grounded.

But it was Christopher Gorham’s time to shine. Even those who may have wished for the blindness mystery to continue had to have been thrilled with the way this played out.

Do you agree? Or you have other things in your mind? Sound off in the comments section below.

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

At last, we have our season 2 finale spoiler for Covert Affairs.

It will air on August 9 and it will feature guest star David Andrews as an ill-tempered State Department boss who gets mixed up with Joan and the CIA when a defection attempt grows complicated.

Andrews is seen below in a promotional photo for his role on JAG and appeared on an episode of Lie to Me earlier this year.

Something is wrong with episode 6 of Covert Affairs season 2 titled “The Outsiders” and let’s discuss it below.

TV Fanatic: The problems have to begin with the utter lack of Peter Gallagher. I’m aware that every character isn’t going to be able to be fit in every week, but I will complain week in and week out when Sandy Cohen fails to make it on screen.The complications continued with the strange realignment of personnel. Auggie was back in his comfort zone, but Reva – still being in the department and out in the field no less – continued to throw me. At the end of last episode, it seemed like she was going to head back to where she came from, but “The Outsiders” began with her out with Annie. Why was there hardly an explanation for why she was still working with them?

I understand that Jaimie Alexander was probably paid to do a couple episodes, but that’s no excuse from a storytelling perspective. Why they would send such a newbie into the field didn’t make much sense. Granted, it wasn’t supposed to be as challenging a mission as it turned out to be, but let’s take a few more precautions here. This is the CIA.

As much of the hour was spent with Annie and Reva attempting to escape the Belarusian police, we were able to witness a number of Ms. Walker’s talents. Her fantastic linguistic skills came into play as she sweet-talked and sang with the dumb Belarusian guards, but it was her ability to throw back three straight shots of strong vodka that really allowed her to escape their grasp.

A lesson from Covert Affairs: Learning to drink mass quantities of vodka can help you in difficult situations!

She is certainly smart, but if she is so intelligent, why was she attempting to help Reva walk by bracing her strong leg? Instead of the one with the ankle she sprained earlier? There’s your goof of the week right there!

The most interesting part of the episode, though, was left to Danielle, who showed just how much she cares about her sister. She was sincerely worried about Annie and her passport, which makes me upset that she has no idea what her sister does for a living. Will they ever allow Danielle to know the truth? If not, it’s going to get more and more difficult to not portray her as such an ignorant individual.

Annie’s excuses are good, but they’re not THAT good. Danielle should be a bit more suspicious by now.

Also interesting? The fact that Annie and Reva were saved because the former wanted to take the unexpected route. Auggie knew she would do the unexpected. I knew she would do the unexpected. So why wouldn’t the bad guys know she would do the unexpected? In the CIA game, you have to figure that the unexpected is the standard. It’s a mind game, and you have to think four steps ahead of your enemy. The expected move might really be the better choice in some instances. Now my head is starting to hurt.

So any comments about this episode of Covert Affairs?

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Last week Covert Affairs gave us an action-packed episode. This time we explore the lighter side on “Around the Sun.”

TV Fanatic: In case you are like Jai and didn’t know this about Annie Walker, she was a space geek!

Annie seems to have a wide variety of hobbies, but her love of space exploration made this week’s NASA-based mission that much more interesting for her. What made it more difficult was that she no longer had her right hand, Auggie Anderson.

Yes, that’s right, Auggie took the overt job with the OCA. We learned early on that he accepted the position without consulting Annie. The question then becomes: what was that phone call about at the end of last week? Just a misdirect? Or was there something lost between scripts?

We’ll get back to Auggie later because we need to talk about what other effects his absences had on Annie. Not only did she not have her best friend helping her out, but his replacement was not the easiest to work with.

Reva was a nice addition. Almost running Annie over in the parking lot, stealing her spot in line for coffee, and then taking Auggie’s place on the team gave us quite the impression in her first 30 minutes on the scene. Reva seemed like she was going to be difficult to work with, which would have been much more interesting, but after Joan reamed her out, she became much nicer and more effective.

But now that Auggie is back in the fold, it seems like she is heading back to whatever research lab she came from. I was hoping she could have stuck around so that she could attempt to foil more of Annie’s work. Our protagonist has it too easy as of late. We need some more inner-conflict for this girl.

Who knows? Maybe they will find a way to keep Reva around. She could be just interesting enough to demand a permanent spot on the series.

So, back to Auggie. He was antsy from the beginning in his new position, but bombing his first assignment for Arthur did not help things. Sure, Annie’s pep talk gave him the confidence he needed to bang out that make up assignment, but it wasn’t enough to keep him away from covert affairs.

It was a nice little trip away from the usual for Auggie, but I would have preferred him to take more than one episode to make his way back into the fold. There is no need to bring things back to the status quo so quickly. Keeping things at that point can make a show too comfortable. It was a nice, brief change up; I just wish it had been a three episode move.

Like I noted at the top, “Around the Sun” was much less an action adventure, and much more a character study, thanks to the great work of Mark Moses. The benefit of having great actors guest star, of course, is that they are great actors. The negative is that they are usually known for being great actors and they stick out like a sore thumb amongst extras.

As soon as I saw Moses’ face during those NASA interviews, I knew he was the one they were looking for. It takes a bit of the surprise out of the equation, but it was worth it for how good Moses was at playing this space nut and wonderful father.

Watching the story unfold, which led to the aforementioned fatherly love, prompted Annie to show some love of her own. The episode ended with an extremely warm moment, as Annie skipped out of the bar to babysit her nieces. It is moments such as these that give Annie Walker so much charm. Yes, she is bad ass, but she is also very sweet.

I really like this episode because I am a great fan of heartwarming encounter. So what about you?

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Honestly, last week’s episode is even better than episode 4 “All the Right Friends” of White Collar. But I still love this exciting and entertaining episode.

TV Fanatic: There was a lot to like. It all started with Annie being a bad ass chick. Between breaking through the police barricade with the 180 back up to taking out the assassin with a three-armed fight as she was handcuffed to Carlo, Annie certainly earned her time in the field this week.

But building off of some of Jeff’s analysis from a couple weeks ago, I have to agree that a gun-less Annie is just difficult to take at times. Her constantly having to take down bad guys without a firearm is getting tiresome. Honestly, it just adds to my issues with Annie being put on all of these missions in the first place.

Is she really one of the best they can find?  Language skills and three-armed fighting aside, there have to be better operatives.

Other than that setback, though, her time with Carlo in Argentina was enjoyable. I loved that she started so apathetic about the mission, but then as soon as people started getting shot, became was all about it. Annie’s time with Carlo was fun because he kept trying to escape. In his first major attempt, he tried the “sneak out the bathroom window” trick. That obviously failed.

His second attempted succeeded, thanks to a random cop and those stupid handcuffs. I almost got extremely angry that people in these situations are always so dumb about wanting to escape their protection, but then we learned it was for journalistic integrity. Although I would have stayed with the trained spy that could keep me safe, I can accept that Carlo has different priorities.

Thankfully, he finally gave into Annie and handcuffed himself to her once again, only to realize they needed to be apart to stay alive. Cue the ridiculous problem that occurs only to create an opportunity for a three-armed fight: yes. the handcuff key fell down a drain. You CAN write this stuff people, and the Covert Affairs staff were the ones to do it.

On the other side of the story was Auggie and his possible change of position. It’s great to see that character get some weight, and Christopher Gorham some interesting material, at this point in the series. Taking the position in the OCA would be a bump in title and money, but he wouldn’t be in Covert Affairs anymore. As that is the title of the show, I don’t think there would really be room for two characters on the overt side of things (Arthur being the other one).

As interesting as Jai’s obvious jealousy of Auggie was, how Annie will be effected by it is more intriguing to me. Once again, riffing off of my colleague’s earlier comments, Auggie and Annie have a really strong connection, which is why the phone call in the final minutes was so important. Auggie will take what Annie has to say about his new opportunity to heart. I’m hoping whatever it is will change his mind. We need Auggie in covert affairs, and we need him to have the opportunity to get in the field.

So what do you think of this episode?

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Beware James Bond, Annie Walker is here!

Honestly, season 2 episode 3 of Covert Affairs titled “Bang and Blame” is the best episode this season so far. And we also got a full dose of… guns!

TV Fanatic: Unlike last week’s rather weak intro leading into the opening credits, Annie’s meeting with Joan and Auggie outside the hospital to which they had somehow tracked her was the perfect prelude to the excitement that would come later. Once Annie uttered the words “I’m in” and the theme song started, I was right there on the edge of my seat alongside her.

For the first time since the series began, Annie Walker felt like a real spy.

The best thing about her mission this time out – a real mission, not some overseas babysitting expedition – was that the stakes involved were personal. Failure to use her instincts and carefully honed skills with perfect precision would have resulted in Annie being burned, her future at the CIA lost forever. That provided the basis for a story with some teeth.

Even more fitting was that Annie was a cadet not so long ago herself and the idea of someone tearing the rug out from under these young people who were just starting to forge a life for themselves hit a little close to home, which made the mission all the more meaningful to her.

It also gave us a chance to see Annie in a place she once excelled. Since her time with the DPD, she’s fared well enough, but there’s always still a hint of reservation in her step. At The Farm, though, she was the top gun in her class, and going back there to solve a mystery on her turf showcased a more confident, capable Annie and underscored why she earned her early position alongside Joan and Auggie.

For as much as I’ve ragged on Annie’s lack of firepower, I couldn’t have been more pleased when she showed up the other cadets by opting for the map instead of taking her pick from the displayed arsenal. As Gaskin indicated, in true clandestine operations, spies rely more on their soft skills to accomplish the mission, something at which Annie has proven herself more than adept. Physical confrontation, whether by firearms or fisticuffs, she can handle, but she uses it only as a means of last resort.

The resolution to the mystery of the leak probably wasn’t as strong as it could have been, what with the feeble explanation of Gaskin’s late night trips (babies, really?) and the loose reasoning for Corey’s betrayal, but everything else worked so well, quibbling over minor details just doesn’t seem right – especially when it delivered an airplane fight between Annie and Corey that carried over into a thrilling parajumping freefall.

It’s impossible not to be fascinated by the Annie and Auggie dynamic. These two, if not destined to be together romantically, are developing a symbiotic relationship on some level, learning to need and rely on each other more and more, which I stated last week is something this show has lacked. It’s just icing on the cake that this growing central relationship is portrayed so deftly by such charming and polarizing actors as Perabo and Gorham, who have an immeasurable chemistry.

During the cocktail party exercise, when Auggie relayed instructions to Annie, in code, on how to get to Gaskins office was so entertaining, it felt like it was ripped straight out of the pages of a spy novel. How Auggie managed to save Annie’s cover was also amusing, as it seems someone there on the Affairs set just can’t get enough of Chris Gorham without a shirt. No doubt his many female fans are likewise appreciative.

Jai even had a moment of welcome gravity, albeit brief, where he seemed to be leveling some type of subtle threat against Arthur through Joan. It’s beginning to feel like the apple doesn’t fall as far from the tree as one might have hoped where Jai is concerned. It will be interesting to see where Jai’s story takes him once it begins to kick into full gear.

Getting back to Arthur’s political woes, which as of yet hasn’t yielded too much new information, seems to have put him in the doghouse. Taking the same advice from the the ex-wife that you already rejected from the current Mrs. Campbell doesn’t exactly seem like a move the head of a prime division of the Central Intelligence Agency should make. It might not get Arthur killed, but it sure may land him back on the couch for a while.

It seems Annie has a new potential love interest in Dr. Weiss, and I already like him more than Ben. He has a great sense of humor, he’s good with kids and he’s a big fan of having dessert with dinner. The one down side? The doctor’s without borders thing means he, too, might conceivably dash away in the middle of the night to some unknown destination to tackle some international emergency. Annie might be best served finding herself someone who prefers sticking a little closer to home.

Overall, I was satisfied with this episode of Covert Affairs. I think the story line is great tonight and I hope Covert Affairs will build momentum from this one.

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

When it comes to Covert Affairs season 2 episode 2 titled “Good Advices,”  our critics wanted to give some good advices on how to save this season from a seemingly slow start. One good discussion was that of TV Fanatic. Read below.

By now, the CIA must realize that sending Annie on even the most routine missions will escalate into something more dangerous, so why not send her packing – or at least have a pistol waiting for her when she lands? Krav Maga can only get a girl so far, especially when she’s in five-inch Louboutins and carrying a $6,000 handbag that could get trashed in the process.

It’s distracting that Annie is constantly without any other means of protection. She might as well be the horror movie virgin who trips in the forest while running from a monster; she’s about as vulnerable.

Supposedly, CIA operatives don’t carry guns on American soil and the plan has been to depict the Agency in as realistic a sense as possible. Hey, if you want to show burn bags, that’s fine – but no one went to see Salt because it was an accurate portrayal of the spy life. They went to see a pouty-lipped, hot chick blow stuff up.

Aside from one chase scene (which frustratingly didn’t even involve our heroine) and a CGI-blown up truck, the action here was next to none. If this is the reality of the CIA, then someone better start passing out some Red Bull around the halls of Langley.

The minimal action might be easier to swallow if there was more intrigue or character depth in the telling of the story. Even a hint of continuity involving the Ben and Arthur setup from the premiere would have been nice. Instead, we were given another predictable mission for Annie to develop an asset who may have had some valuable intel for the CIA. Virtually no core character connections whatsoever.

Stretching the definition of character development a bit, there were tiny inklings of growth in both Annie and Auggie, such as Annie deciding to tell Danielle the truth about her French destination, even if the details were still obscured. Auggie’s struggles with taking the reins in Joan’s absence didn’t exactly hit the target they were shooting for (pacing back and forth, waiting for Joan to call while Jai hovers like a charm-free vampire isn’t exactly fascinating), but at least we saw a bit of vulnerability in his self-doubt.

The big problem here continues to be that the relationships on Covert Affairs are too hollow. Annie and Auggie are the most compatible characters and that partnership needs to deepen. Not necessarily romantically, but there should be something at stake; something that drives them from an emotional center and ties their experiences and those of everyone else around them together.

Sydney needed Vaughn. Michael needs Fiona. Even Shawn needs Gus. Annie needs to need Auggie.

Fehr’s Eyal brought little of the punchy banter and sexual tension between he and Annie that existed during his first visit. The dialogue between them was awfully trite this time out, and what passed for tension was stunted silences and awkward looks. There was no believable chemistry between the two at all. Ice cubes generate more heat. Such a disappointment.

Joan’s borderline-farcical side trip to the jury box was mostly ridiculous and neither added anything to the story nor to her character. This pursuit of civic duty should have been handled off-screen, allowing more time for Auggie’s conflict with the weighty responsibilities thrust upon him.

Overall, if we’ll treat this episode as a gunshot, it is definitely a missed one. Aimed carefully but failed to hit the target. What do you think?

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

What will happen with Auggie and Annie on Covert Affairs season 2? EW has something for us!

Christopher Gorham was asked if his character would ever hook up with Piper Perabo’s Annie.

He didn’t really say, of course, but Gorham did point to the June 28 and July 5 episodes.

“It’s a real potential turning point,” he teased of an offered job promotion. “It’s one of those moments in your life where you have to decide which direction you want to go and what you want to do. It weighs on Auggie, and it’s another opportunity, too, for his relationship with Annie to show itself and build a little bit.”

On July 19, meanwhile, viewers will learn the truth about Auggie’s sight and how he lost it.

So what do you think of this one?

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

The season 2 premiere of Covert Affairs aired last week, but now we have something for you. Below you can check the spoiler for episode 7 titled “Half a World Away.” This episode airs on July 19.

Christoper Gorham has teased the upcoming installment to Entertainment Weekly, telling the publication that we’ll see his character of Auggie “out of the office” that week. Way out of the office.

“He’s on vacation in Istanbul for this big international jazz festival, and we end up doing flashbacks to Iraq before he lost his sight,” Gorham says. “We have the big reveal – finally the truth about how he lost his sight. There’s some romance in that episode for him as well. It’s a great episode.”

The more Auggie the better right? He is such a fantastic character and I really want to see more of him. What do you think?

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.

Fans found season 2 episode 1 of Covert Affairs titled “Begin the Begin” lacking and disappointing. The spoilers promised a “more fun” premiere episode, however we saw otherwise. What happened? Let’s dig in.

TV Fanatic: You have no idea how much I wanted to love “Begin the Begin.” Perhaps I had overhyped it in my mind, but I found myself slightly underwhelmed by the return of Annie Walker – and not just because the show let Ben live. It’s not that this was a particularly bad episode, it was just routine and lacked the passion one generally expects from a season premiere.

Nothing much happened to move the story along. In fact, by the end, we seemed to be almost right back where we started: Annie working for the CIA unaware of Ben’s whereabouts; Ben working off book.

The only thing different is that Ben’s now working covertly for Arthur (I’m a little fuzzy on who exactly Ben was working for before) and Annie seems to be less fazed by his disappearance.

I hope the latter is true because if she yanks out that blasted shell bracelet this season, I’m not sure who I’ll take it out on.

Despite the overall predictability of the mission-of-the-week (the big blonde Russian chick practically bellowed “assassin”), Annie’s gut was spot on and her perceptibility impressive. I wouldn’t have tied the candy bar to the tennis player’s true agenda, so score one for Annie Walker.

I know Annie’s supposed to be a good agent, but she’s still very green – and impulsive. Definitely not experienced enough to be rushing into situations with potential gunfire, unarmed (seriously… WHEN is the girl gonna get a gun?).

It’s not like she’s Supergirl, as much as she’d like to think she is. Even Auggie knows this, which is why he cautioned her to “think it through,” something she summarily ignored. It seems once the adrenaline starts pumping, her ability to reason goes out the window.

Of course, without Annie’s tendency towards the impetuous this show could be intolerably boring, so I suppose I can accept it in exchange for some pulse-pounding action, which I hope improves as the season progresses.

Auggie, on the other hand, can do no wrong. Not only does he offer up the best advice (definitely don’t compliment your own equipment when trying to impress a girl), he makes for one slick partner in crime-fighting. The highlight of every episode, bar none, is when he and Annie share the screen. It’s something that should happen much more often.

Generally, I like Piper Perabo just fine and think she makes the most of her role as Annie, but there’s an extra spring in her step whenever she has a scene with Christopher Gorham that I find becoming. It’s not that surprising, though, since Gorham is so charming and so effective, he could give life to a corpse.

One thing that sort of took me aback, and I’m not sure if it was the quality of the screener I was watching or what, but Auggie’s voiceovers sounded a lot like those in a first-person video game. So much so that I had the urge to scramble for an XBox 360 controller.

I was also disappointed that we didn’t get any traction on the Liza Hearn/Henry Wilcox cliffhanger. She’s just writing more inflammatory articles about Arthur? That’s so last season! What happened after she and Henry drove off in the towncar together?

I hope the arrival of a high-priced attorney on Arthur and Joan’s doorstep to combat the Liza Hearn-induced legal woes don’t mean we’re in for a lot of legal humdrum, because that could seriously grind this series to a halt.

Where is the intrigue? Where is the suspense? Where is something even remotely related to a purpose for either Jai or Danielle?

I had a chat with a friend this week about Covert Affairs in general and we seemed of the same mind that the USA Network formula might be hindering more than helping this spy drama. Setting my bias aside (I’m a die-hard Alias fan), a series about the world of espionage should have more edge than your typical run-of-the-mill procedural.

Spies generally connote a certain sexiness (in terms of story more than character) that I think Covert lacks. It seems a little too safe. It’s a bit surprising, in fact, that this comes from the same folks who gave us the Bourne trilogy.

Overall, the season 2 premiere is a disappointment. However, this doesn’t mean that I’ll stop watching the show. I still hope that great episode will be delivered in the near future, maybe starting at episode 2.

You can check other Covert Affairs Season 2 Reviews and Spoilers HERE.