Friday, August 30, 2013

Covert Affairs, or Simply Confusion ?

Covert Affairs is one of my favorite TV shows to watch.  One of the summer cable shows, it's not especially great and has no deep messages, but it's a fun spy show with compelling characters fighting evil in several exotic foreign locales.  its chief protagonist is glamorous Annie, whose spike heels are taller than she is but who nonetheless can karate kick the hell out of bad guy in flat male shoes. the second most important character (and  to me a somewhat more interesting one) is   Auggie, a handsome, blind tech genius who has had a flirtatious relationship with Annie since the show's beginning, culminating finally in last season's obligatory but well done Hot Kiss.  Fans have been waiting for this season's follow-through all year, and it first, it looked pretty good.  One nice minute-or-so of them being sexy in bed (or rather the camera sinuously moving around them while they snuggled lustfully with each other) and the rest, their adventures caught up in spy-stuff that hits closer to home than they have expected.  I have enjoyed how their affection has played out in tender smiles, hand-holding, arm-caresses, focusing less on their affair than on the dangers to it from hyper villain Henry, out to avenge his son's death and to generally cause chaos to the free world.  fan mail has been fun to read, with the ranges of opinion all over the place.  A&A a good couple, or a chemistry-challenged mistake?  Too much Henry; too little Henry? the usual fan fun.

but this past Tuesday's episode has me pissed. various secrets of various characters have emerged, including Auggie's long-dead spy-wife who is still a spy but no longer dead.  (No, Auggie didn't know she was alive.) This causes some strain between the new couple, but nothing that overwhelming, until  they are sitting together, wondering where their relationship is going, and suddenly, because they never have time to talk about it (spy life being as chaotic as it is), they decide to break up.

Say what?  Auggie bemoans that this time issue means they'll never be a normal couple.  Now each of them has had numerous serious affairs over the years: she with another CIA spy and a Russian spy; he with 2 spies and a Peace Core worker in one of the most dangerous spots in the world.  And both our heroes have both been guided by an older married spy couple whose relationship, though tumultuous, has survived.  So has Auggie been expecting that he and Annie would turn into Ozzie and Harriet? The breakup was well acted, each of them in obvious pain.  but you do wonder why one of them doesn't stop and say, ''umm, what is this about again?'' With all the build-up and hype for the past two seasons, if this couple breaks up, it would require something huge to make any sense at all, and that something hasn't emerged.

My hope is that the breakup turns out to be an elaborate hoax to convince Henry to trust Annie and then be caught finally by the good guys.  If not, and A&A are no longer together, i am going to break up with both of them, and find me a more reliable spy couple.  Pity "Burn Notice" is going off the air--it was never one of my favorites, but their tormented lovers stayed together/apart in their various ways for awhile.  and NCIS Los Angeles has no interesting couples, but it does have the magnificent Linda Hunt at its core.  Yeah, for Linda Hunt, i might be willing to give up on love in the spy world....

No comments: