NBC's newest drama, State of Affairs, screened its third episode last night, and in a nutshell I was very impressed.
"Half The Sky" was written by Kim Clements and directed by Sarah Pia Anderson, with both doing an excellent job in their respective roles. This episode traded speed and intensity, a feature in the previous two episodes, for subtlety and character interaction. The blend was spot on, and kept my eyes on the screen throughout.
Taking a page from recent news events, the procedural case centered around a kidnapped girls soccer team in Nigeria. As part of President Constance Payton's morning briefing, Charlie Tucker outlined the situation, with the former warning Charlie that US boots on the ground to resolve the crisis was not an option. That didn't mean Charlie wasn't allowed to dig deeper, so she and her team got to work, with Charlie leveraging the contacts of former colleague Nick Vera to secure a private military contractor to get the job done. Payton used her well timed meeting with the Chinese President to further support the mission.
As you'd expect, the mission went according to plan, with all the girls making it out alive, but what lifted the hour from good to excellent in my book was how the case eased or tightened the tensions between the characters.
Initially, Charlie laid the cornerstones for the operation independent of her boss, CIA director Navaro, something the latter didn't warm to. Nick Vera's mystery continued to grow as we saw in flashbacks the time he and Charlie first met, on board a CIA black site ship, named "Midnight City" (there's an awesome song of the same name by the band M83) where Omar Fatah was being interrogated. In present day, Vera maintained a close proximity to Charlie, calling in on her several times. Charlie rightfully grew suspicious that Vera was having his strings pulled, but the puppeteer remains under wraps.
I was surprised to see Kurt Tannen attempt a move on his colleague Maureen James so early on in the series. This tracks with what the showrunners set out to do early on: create a less robotic office atmosphere. Kurt was clear in his intentions but Maureen didn't take the hint. Payton's husband Marshall also reappeared, with the couple having a brief dispute over Marshall's actions in trying to request further information on his son's death. Further, Charlie and her then finance Aaron, discussed their upcoming marriage in flashbacks.
Late in the episode, Sid reached out to Charlie, having been asked last week to take a closer look at Nick Vera, whom Charlie suspected was the source of the photo showing herself with Fatah and Nick on board Midnight City seen earlier in flashbacks. Nick came up clean, meaning Charlie has to look elsewhere for the mystery texter. Sid did mention the new CIA director Navaro as being a bit shady though. In my mind, he's the one to watch.
On top of the beautifully composed storyline for the episode, I thought Katherine Heigl was outstanding last night. She had a much stronger onscreen presence, and looked far more relaxed and composed. I mentioned her performance in last week's episode review also, but she was several steps higher than that last night. You don't have to dig deep until you hit her critics, but I genuinely enjoyed her performance. Kudos must also go to director Sarah Pia Anderson, who employed some stunning dolly shots throughout the hour to capture the action.
I'm really excited to see what next week's episode, curiously titled "Bang, Bang" brings. NBC have revealed a lot of interesting pieces in the press release, and the promo also looks fantastic. Smallpox and "Bang, Bang" certainly don't rhyme. If last night's episode is anything to go by, State of Affairs is getting much, much better as we get further into the season. Hopefully, who knocked on Nick's door will also be revealed.
Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts on last night's episode in the comments below. You can also see State of Affairs' ratings on my TV ratings website, www.seriesmonitor.com/stateofaffairs.
Jimmy.
