THEY HAD ME AT VICTOR GARBER…

Can Deception be the next Revenge? Or just another disappointing mid-season show?

I would pretty much watch anything that has Victor Garber (A.K.A our beloved spy-daddy) in it. However I am a little tired of watching him play the loving father in small supporting roles on movies and TV shows. I want to see him being dark, devious and complex as he was when he was Jack Bristow. He’s been in a couple TV shows since Alias (Justice, Eli Stone) but none lasted long, so I keep praying for him to be in a good successful show so I get to watch him for more than a season. [On a related note, I just watched an interview where Victor says Jennifer Garner still calls him 'Spy-pappy' isn't that adorable?]

Deception premieres January 7^th, 2013 at 10/9c on NBC. A lot of people are comparing it to Revenge. The premise is clearly similar. Deception is the story of a female cop who returns to the house where she grew up to solve the murder of her childhood friend. There a bunch of commonalities with Revenge, we have a strong female lead with a hidden agenda, a mysterious murder and a group of privileged-probably-evil people. However I think the tone of the show is different. Revenge goes all in with the ‘soapy-action-adventure-melodrama’ (one of the reasons it is so addictive) while Deception seems to be more into the traditional drama realm with some murder-mystery elements.

Probably the main draw of the show is the cast which includes the mentioned Victor Garber (who is awesome as usual) and Damages alum Tate Donovan (you may also remember him from Friends or The O.C.). The leading character, Joanna, is played by Maegan Good. I couldn’t remember a single thing she did before this but I thought she was very charming in the role. Perhaps a little too charming, she is supposed to be a cop after all. I don’t know if she has what it takes to play a though girl… but then again Emily VanCamp seems to be doing OK and you don’t get more ‘girl-next-door’ than her.

The pilot was interesting enough to keep me intrigued, I look forward to watching more episodes and see the mystery unfold. In summary, I thought it was a show with a lot of potential, good performances, compelling enough stories and a pretty decent script. However, I am not sure if it has the addiction-factor that Revenge had. The thing about Revenge is that it taps into that basic need of retaliation in a very ‘Count of Montecristo’ fashion, Deception is more about solving the murder, and somehow that motivation isn’t as visceral. Plus Deception isn’t as big and crazy as Revenge and I don’t know if it will be enough to attract viewers and hold them once the regular season returns. NBC seems to be on a roll this year and it would be a great accomplishment if they could produce a hit during mid-season. We’ll have to wait and see… Whatever the outcome, they had me at ‘Victor Garber’.