Network: NBC; Genre: Action/Adventure; Content Rating: TV-14 (violence and some sexual content); Perspective: contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);
Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)
Henry (Christian Slater) is an efficiency expert with a wife and two kids. He's such a nice guy, his life is so normal and ordinary that you just know he has to be a secret agent. He just doesn't know it. When called onto assignments, a secret government agency activates hardware in his brain that temporary wipes out Henry and loads in the personality of secret black ops badass assassin Edward. When returning Henry to his normal life false memories are implanted to explain any cuts or bruises. But we've got a problem. Henry/Edward is now broken. He starts snapping back and forth between personalities at random moments bringing Edward into Henry's home life and Henry for the first time into the high stakes world of Edward's.
I love this show. What a great idea. What a crisp and fun execution. What a deliciously entertaining series. "My Own Worst Enemy" is an imaginative shot in the arm for the spy series, putting a new spin on the classic double life storyline by keeping the agent himself in the dark, putting him at odds with (as the title so aptly describes) himself. I'm not even divulging my favorite little twist in the show, suffice to say it surprises from the beginning when the origin of the digital personality split is revealed.
Due to its at-home-on-cable complex premise, the show never caught fire with an audience and NBC is too cheap to keep it around until it could. That's a shame because had it been seen by more eyes this could have been a Kiefer Sutherland-level comeback for Christian Slater. Slater is terrific in dual role, playing both Henry and Edward with slightly different mannerisms and voices, fully vested in both the bumbling family man and the ruthless womanizing killer. Edward takes pleasure in sleeping with Henry's wife when he takes over but can't stand the domestic duties like buying his daughter a dress for the school dance. Henry freaks out when he wakes up in the bed of the company psychiatrist (Saffron Burrows) who Edward is sleeping with or in the field on a mission. None of this is played as cheesy, from Slater or in the show's unblinking treatment of material that goes along way to make material work that so easily could have fallen into camp.
The show also works, both on the home front stories and as an action series ride with Henry/Edward's cell phone recorder serving as a bridge by which the two personalities communicate (and threaten) each other. This is more than can be said for the more procedural, less cinematic spy thriller "the Unit", which still juggles domestic and black ops story lines awkwardly.
Mike O'Malley really surprises as Edward's partner, Raymond, another agent in the program. The wife of his alias, Joe, has grown suspicious leading her further to the truth. O'Malley is unrecognizable as the ruthless Raymond. This guy would eviscerate his "Yes Dear" character without thinking twice. On the other side is Alfrie Woodward as the program's overseer, who after her jump the shark performance in season 2 of "Desperate Housewives" could not look more lost or uninterested with everything going on. Acting fireplug James Cromwell also appears as her gruff superior office –a role Cromwell could do in his sleep.
Like "The Unit", "Enemy" isn't a "24"-level thrill ride. We never feel things won't work out for our heroes. The fun is in seeing how. What resourceful way will Henry keep to his core human principals while trying to dispatch an international terrorist? But the missions are nothing compared to the battle between the two men. That's where the show's imaginative playground is. How far will Edward go to push or even get rid of Henry? The action hits all the right notes here. This isn't serious spy stuff. It's pulpy Jason Bourne over-the-top movie spy stuff. Extremely entertaining spy stuff at that.
* * * ½ / 4
