The Enemy Within: Worth the Watch?

On: February 27, 2019

This review contains spoilers for the NBC Pilot S1E1, The Enemy Within.

“The FBI Estimates there are one hundred thousand foreign spies working with the United States today. More than any time in history.”

Erica Shepard, Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA is played by Jennifer Carpenter who you may know for the Showtime hit series Dexter. Shepard is arrested by the FBI for espionage after exposing the name of several American operatives. Four Americans died as a result of her crimes.

The series picks up three years after her arrest. Fourteen deaths occur, 3 attacks, in 3 different cities. The suspect is Tal who Shepard was investigating before she was arrested.

FBI Supervising Special Agent Will Keaton is played by Morris Chestnut, who you may know from the Amazon Prime original Goliath and the FOX series Rosewood. One of the people killed as a results of Shepard’s betrayal is agent Keaton’s fiancé.

When the FBI cuts a deal with Shepard, her help in exchange for more freedom while in prison, they place a tracker around her artery so if she tries to remove it she will likely bleed out. I have NEVER heard of anything like that but it sounds super effective.

Morris Chestnut as Will Keaton, John Finn as Richard Bregman, Jennifer Carpenter as Erica Shepherd
*Photo by: Will Hart/NBC*

Shepard has a keen ability to learn a lot about people just from observing their behaviors. She shows herself to be a great resource within the first few hours. However, she is truly as stealthy as the team have come to find out. Shepard causes injury to herself in order to escape and get an opportunity just to lay eyes her daughter.

Shepard confides in Keaton that the reason she betrayed her country was to save her daughter’s life. She convinces Keaton that he cannot do it without her.

Out of the fourteen people believed to be dead one was taken hostage, Anna Cruz. Keaton is able to recover the hostage, but the team needs to locate and lockdown Tal before he causes anymore loss of life.

Watch This With Me?

Yes, if you have time. I give it a 3 out of 5 for the pilot.

I love Morris but I wish his first lined was delivered with a bit more aggression to show the seriousness of the situation. He pulled a Horatio Caine, Keaton takes off the shades to deliver the bad news and then they’re back on again.

When Agent Keaton found Anna Cruz, I didn’t understand where his tears were coming from. Isn’t this a part of his job? In order to make it to Supervising Special Agent, I am sure he has been in more tense situations. That part did not seem realistic to me. He could possibly be recalling some emotions from the death of his fiancé.

I miss Rosewood, but that’s just me.

Keaton is still grieving the loss of his fiancé, he and Anna shared a moment, and it would not be out of the unusual for them to develop a relationship. This could be a story line explored in future episodes.

A shocking but not so shocking moment is when we discover that Anna Cruz, saved by Keaton, is working with the enemy. It never made sense that out of 14 deaths she was the only one taken as a hostage.

Tal will have Anna develop a relationship with Keaton and exploit this relationship to execute his agenda. The predictability of this story line is unattractive, unless there is a twist here, possibly where Anna is found out by Shepard and can be used as a triple agent. I need some unpredictability with this story line to create further intrigue. A story line from the pilot episode cannot be cookie cutter if the goal is the longevity of the show.

I like the idea of an agent forced to betray her country being given a second chance and helping her country at the same time. However, I am looking forward to seeing more scenes where we get an opportunity to see the acting chops of these veterans. Jennifer Carpenter is giving it to us and I suspect we will see a bit more from Morris Chestnut’s character once he exposes more about his fiancé and her death.

I love the action in the first episode and the introduction of some familiar faces I haven’t seen in some time.

I will continue watching and look forward to seeing where the direction of the writing of the show goes. The previews for future episodes look great.

The Enemy Within airs Monday nights on NBC.