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Angela's Eyes: Pilot (series premiere)
(S01E01) Suspect to Angela: You've been watching too much bad TV, honey.
FBI agent Angela Henson can pinpoint a liar at twenty paces. She does this by using her keen sense of observation to watch people and their mannerisms: eye movements, voice inflections, the tightening of their trigger fingers while they point a gun at her head. She's one mean crime-fighting machine.
She's also the main character in the new Lifetime series Angela's Eyes, which combines a little bit of Alias, The Closer and Psych into one 60-minute show. And, while the concept is interesting there is one minor problem with the program. Mainly, the star, her co-stars, the dialogue and the direction. Okay, maybe a couple of minor problems.
It all stems from Abagail Spencer, the former All My Children star, and Ally Sheedy lookalike, who plays Angela. She's just wrong for the part. There was not one scene during the entire episode that I believed that she was a FBI agent. She was too irresponsible, too messed up, to be an efficient federal agent. In some scenes she would just drop the investigation, and leave her partners behind in the dust, while she took care of the personal business. This is not good practice while you are investigating the alleged murder of the wife of a prominent businessman.
This flagrant disregard for protocol was clearly shown in one particular scene. After attaching a radio transmitter to her boyfriend's cell phone (because she didn't trust him), she raced back to her apartment in the middle of the investigation when she realized that he found out about it and was heading to her apartment as well. Not professional at all.
This brings up another point: Angela's boyfriend. The man is justifiably pissed that Angela would try to track his movements. However, after she explains to him about her traitor parents who stole U.S. secrets, sold them, and are now paying the price in federal prison, he just tosses it aside and says everything is okay. Man, if a girlfriend did that to me, regardless of being a FBI agent, I would have brought her on up on charges. Yet, this is the Lifetime network, where the motto is 'Women are Strong, Men are Weak and Stupid'. So, I guess it's okay.
I don't understand how Cathy Schulman and Tom Nunan, producers of the critically acclaimed movie Crash, could be attached to this clunky, poorly acted show. The pilot contains way too much material (criminal investigations, espionage, missing documents) for the viewer to concentrate on, which confuses everything. Writer Dan McDermott (The Omen) provides poor dialogue and stereotypical characterization to everyone on the show. The supporting cast members, including Lyriq Bent, Joe Cobden, and Rick Roberts as members of the FBI task force, basically just kowtow to Angela's commands and whims. But, this is Lifetime network, so I guess it's okay.
So, if you want to watch a show about someone who can tell if a person is lying, watch TNT's The Closer. If you want to watch a show about someone who has a keen sense of observation watch USA's Psych. If you want to see Boyd Gaines, who portrayed Mark Royer on One Day at a Time, then tune into Angela's Eyes.
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