ABC’s The Catch a Diabolical Romance

Shonda Rhimes, the ABC Prime Time Queen, has once again given us a rare gem in dramatic entertainment.  The Catch -- ABC’s Mid-Season replacement for ‘How To Get Away with Murder’ – can be seen on Thursday’s right after Scandal. 

Starring Mireille Enos, best known for playing detective Sarah Linden in The Killing and opposite Brad Pitt in World War Z.  

In The Catch, Mireille plays a successful private investigator and co private security firm owner, Alice Vaughn.  In the pilot episode Alice is glowing with happiness about her upcoming nuptials to successful business man, Christopher Hall, played by Peter Krause. Peter is known for such shows as Dirty Sex Money, Six Feet Under and most recently, Parenthood. 

So the twist in The Catch comes when Christopher wakes Alice the day before their wedding and asks her to run away with him. She laughs him off, thinking he is being ridiculous.  When she returns home she discovers he is missing, she goes to his office and finds an empty space. Finally, the 1.5 million dollars she’s given him to purchase their new house is gone. 

Alice has a good cry, a little tantrum and then picks herself up. Resolute on finding this man who has destroyed her heart, hopes and dreams Alice Vaughn goes to work. 

As The Catch plot develops, Christopher’s love for Alice is genuine, and had she said yes to him that fateful morning when he asked her to run away he would have abandoned his con-artist life forever.  But of course, that would make for a boring drama, right?

So why doesn’t he just drop everything and tell her he loves her? Well, the life of a con-artist is complicated. Christopher and his associates owe some very powerful bad guys a lot of money, 15 million to be exact.  When the ‘score’ with Alice tanked, forcing the return all of the money stolen from her and her firm, Christopher’s little con man team was left penniless. 

Christopher wants to put as much distance between Alice and  ruthless associates as possible before they find out the truth about his feelings. The most eminent threat is his dominating lover played by the glorious Sonya Walger, (known for Parenthood, Lost, and even a small 2 episode stint on Scandal).  

Christopher, despite many attempts is unable to let go of Alice, his pull to her is magnetic.  As she gets closer to finding him, he allows it, if only to give into his needs for a short time. Awwww…so sweet. 

Add in The Catch sub-plots of a French Secret Service Agent also looking for Christopher Hall, Alice’s wanting to keep her endeavor secret from her trusted friends, and her regular day-to-day job and you have the mixing of a dramatic masterpiece. To be honest, Alice is just as diabolical as Christopher in many ways and thus making the series so addictive.

Plot twists and high fashion abound in The Catch making is visually and psychologically stimulating. The brilliance of Shonda Rhimes in my opinion is nothing is ever black and white, she loves to dabble in the gray’s of the world.  

I put this new series to the three episode test, and it passed with flying colors, full of intrigue, romance, deception and uniquely flawed characters, The Catch is most definitely worth your time and DVR space!

Episode Recaps

Tried and True - The Three Episode Test

If you have read any of my television reviews you will see me acknowledge 'the three episode test'. 

This is a test I've developed after years of television watching. It is simple, and works wonders in the judgment of whether a show is engaging and potentially lasting.

When a show premieres I give it three chances, three episodes to hook me. 
Why three? Well, I've found many times it will take three episodes to completely flesh out the potential of a show. 

The pilot is just that - the pilot. Sometimes they are action packed, amazing and lift the show off the ground. Have you ever watched the second episode and gotten a completely different feel from it? Where are you are asking if it is the same show?

Sometime the pilot sucks, just not enough umph, but then watching episodes two and three you really get into the meat of the plot. 
 
And sometimes, the pilot is amazing, the first episode is okay, and the second episode complete pulls you back into the fun!

Thus, three. If you can't hook me in three, I doubt you will be around next season to hook me at all.

It is not always accurate, but 98% of the time it works.

So that is the three episode test. How do you decide if a show is worth the space on your DVR? 
Love to hear from you!!

The Blacklist Creates a Dialog and an Extraordinary Moment

Have you every witnessed something extraordinary? Something that you didn't expect? A moment that transcended all of your expectations. I would have never believed it but I experienced a moment tonight as did millions of others.

In tonight's episode of NBC's The Blacklist the main character Raymond Reddington (played magnificently by James Spader) delivers a speech that I predict will be referenced for the rest of our lives and the lives of our children.
While there is probably already a clip of it out there, I was so startled by the poignancy, relevance, and sheer honesty I went back and copied the speech word for word by hand.

Here it is. Bravo to the writers at NBC as well as an astounding delivery by James Spader.
Enjoy.

Reddington:

Have you ever seen the aftermath of a suicide bomber?

Female Character:

You’re wasting time…

Reddington:

I have, June 29^th, 2003. I was meeting two associates at the Murush restaurant in Tel Aviv. As my car was pulling up, a twenty-year-old Palestinian man name Kazi Safar enters the restaurant and detonates a suicide vest wired with C4. The shock wave knocked me flat, burst my ear drums. I couldn’t hear—the smoke—it was like being underwater.

I went inside—A nightmare. Blood, parts of people—You could tell where Saraf was standing when the vest blew—it was like a perfect circle of death. There was almost nothing left of the people closest to him.  17 dead, 46 injured, blown to pieces. The closer they were to the blast the more horrific the effect.

Female Character:

Please stop—

Reddington:

That’s every suicide. Every single one. An act of terror perpetrated against everyone who has ever known you. Everyone who has ever loved you. The people closest to you, the ones who cherish you are the ones who suffer the most pain, the most damage—why would you do that? Why would you do that to people who love you?

Female Character:

I have no choice.

Reddington:

There’s always a choice.

Every person who comments gets a name in a hat, share this post with your friend and you get two! I will choose one person every Sunday to receive a $10 gift card to Amazon! Stay Tuned, keep reading and keep commenting!!