Coming to ABC in just over a week is the newest string to the powerful Shondaland #TGIT bow. Thriller crime drama The Catch premieres Thursday March 24 following Scandal. Centered around the lives of a private investigator and a con-man, The Catch has a lot to like, but the series premiere didn't sell me completely.
Mireille Enos takes the lead role in the series, portraying Alice Vaughan, a highly regarded private investigator. Enos, like all the other female lead actors across the #TGIT lineup, suits the role down to the ground, and handles a powerful yet varied character extremely well.
Playing Vaughan's fiancé, and the series' con-man-in-chief is Peter Krause. By design the character Krause plays is more difficult to like, but I didn't think he pulls that off as well as I would have expected. Perhaps the best way to phrase this is I don't think many prospective fans will end up watching The Catch for Krause or his character as both left me a bit underwhelmed. It will be interesting to see what happens there.
Sonya Walger, Jacky Ido, Rose Rollins, Alimi Ballard, Jay Hayden and Elvy Yost combine to make a reasonably solid supporting cast, but don't expect to learn much about any of their characters from the premiere alone. The cast in general is pretty diverse - a trait shared throughout all television series associated with Shondaland.
As is the case in most television series, all of the characters are among the elite in their fields. The story begins with Alice Vaughan doing what she does best, which involves finding and detaining an art thief. We've seen this done in movies and other television series countless times The Catch doesn't go out of its way to do anything spectacular here. Where it gets interesting is Vaughan's impending marriage to fiancé Christopher, the con-man. In an act of what's best described as corporate espionage, Christopher - known as 'Mr. X' to Vaughan in this context - steals a bunch of information from Vaughan's P.I. company and disappears. The game of cat and mouse begins from there.
It's an interesting premise, but not one that's foreign to the cinema and small screen, with many movies and television shows having portrayed similar variations of the cat and mouse story before. A key trait The Catch gains from this is clearly defined protagonists and antagonists - something that doesn't feature anywhere near as prominently in other Shondaland offerings, but that doesn't shake the feeling of it being a bit unoriginal. More recent Shondaland creations Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder were much more radical here, but that doesn't mean The Catch should be written off just yet.
Story aside, the production quality seen in The Catch is outstanding. Director Julie Anne Robinson shines in this department with some very good cinematography and editing techniques used throughout. A great selection of soundtracks gives the premiere a unique energy and feel, and the hallmarks of luxury are abundant through the set design and wardrobe - there's no shortage of cash among these characters.
So why watch The Catch then? For one, Mireille Enos stars in a role which she executes beautifully. Like all Shondaland series, The Catch has a strong female lead character played by a very capable actress. The production value is really good, and the formidable track record Shondaland dramas have with regard to quality storytelling and lifespan is tough to ignore. Countering that, Mireille Enos may end up carrying the series, and the premise isn't particularly captivating. While I'm a wee way off from throwing in the towel, with so much good television on right now, a series has to be well and truly worthy of being on my regular watchlist, and this well below Shondaland's best effort. The Catch falls somewhere in the middle of my pile of series right now, but it won't be the first time a mediocre premiere leads to a genuinely excellent series.
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to jump in the comments section below to let me know whether you'll be tuning in to The Catch or not. If you've got a question, ask it there too - I'll try to answer it!
The Catch premieres after Scandal, Thursday, March 24, 10|9c, on ABC.
