I was quite excited to see a new CM spin-off after 'Suspect Behavior' was unfairly cancelled, but after watching 3 episodes I think I'll only be watching in future because it's SO bad! The cast seem to be doing their best with the material provided, and it's nice to see them include another actress who isn't stick-thin (although I have my doubts about her supposed assault course abilities), but for a show whose main premise involves foreign countries it seems to be doing a fair job of p*****g them off. Here we have the FBI sweep in to save 'innocent Americans' from the incompetent, funny-speaking foreigners (never just Americans, always 'innocent Americans') and yet still taking time to point out the cultural stereotypes. For example, in episode 2 set in Mumbai, presumably we're supposed to be impressed that one of the amazing FBI agents can name the most famous Indian cricketer who has ever lived (Sachin Tendulkar) - and yet the producers couldn't even take the time to find an old video clip of India actually playing cricket ('no one watches cricket except the Brits, Aussies, Indians, Pakistanis, Jamaicans, Kiwis, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis etc so they won't notice if we use England vs the West Indies') - if only there were resources where you could research this sort of stuff?! And we're told at the start of the episode that it's considered to rude to refuse an offer of hospitality - and yet at the end of the same episode Gary Sinise's character (I can't even be bothered to remember his name) refuses an invitation to a wedding! Maybe the average viewer now has such a short attention span that the producers assume we won't remember something from 30 minutes previously? Maybe it's this bad on purpose just so we keep watching for the patronising cultural clangers?? Can't wait for them to visit the UK so I can see the FBI pointing out that by law you have to drink 10 cups of tea per day and speak like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins . . .
