Think of it as a Chuck meets Lethal Weapon meets Die Hard kind of show. Chuck may seem like the odd one out in that group, but I find that Rick Martinez, the character of Freddy Rodriguez, resembles him a bit in the nerdy, clumsy, naive, overachiever kind of way. His fiancée left him for his brother, he trained his whole life to enter the CIA and now that he finally gets the chance to do it, the director of Clandestine Administration and Oversight Services, or as they fondly like to call it, Chaos – tells him that due to budget cuts he can no longer offer him the job he wants. But our Mr.. Martinez is a passionate Puerto Rican with a dream and a goal to his life and he will not take no for an answer. So, motivated by the little man’s speech, or rather said, fondly amused by it and struck with the light of a new possibility, the director gives him another job: to be what Ricky has always dreamt of: a spy!… and also his mole in the department of Disruptive Services. Here comes the Lethal Weapon meets Die Hard part in the combination.
The department of Disruptive Services is mainly composed of three guys… three peculiar guys (and let’s leave it at that), with a higher sense of justice than their sense of duty; and by that I mean that these guys are really good at what they do and it doesn’t matter to them as much the how they achieve their means, but more that they’ve done everything they possibly could to achieve them. What keeps them in the force is that they know the people and the ways to get them out of the trouble they get themselves into. That’s why they’re considered a cancer; they’re pretty much rouge agents with C.I.A. badges that let them use (more or less) the agency’s resources. But, as their higher commander wishes them gone and makes no effort to welcome their stay in his department longer than their latest screw up, these guys learn to make do with what they can and find; meaning they cheat, steal and borrow, without ever returning stuff back. Michael, Eric Close’s character, is the leader of the pack – a “tactical genius with a fevered brain”, or so I think the Scottish man spoke, but who can actually understand all that he says. Michael seems like the normal, serious, introverted type, but make no mistake, he’s far from normal. He’s the leader for a reason and he’s the one who leads these boys in all kinds of trouble in the name of justice, people protection and so on and so forth. The Scottish guy is Billy. He’s, well… a bit wee insane, but that’s just how I like my Scottish men. And then there is Casey, the Human Weapon. Describing these guys in detail would be unfair because they really deserve to be watched. They’re funny on their own, but as a team they’re hilarious.
First they trick Ricky into giving papers that contained national secrets to a “known Russian operative”, in order to blackmail him into becoming rogue himself and disobeying the director’s (Higgins) orders. Then they decide to take the matter into their own hands and fly to Sudan in order to release a French freelance reporter, with dual citizenship, from the rebels’ capture, without actual permission. The plan comes well as far as them stealing the money they needed for ransom from the counterfeit office, finding horses to travel the desert and getting rather safely to the rebel’s camp. Ricky is there to translate and save Michael’s fingers from getting chopped off, by eating a scorpion. But as their fierce leader goes into the prisoner’s tent to find the man they came for, he finds over a dozen others. So a new plan comes into shape. Without even talking, the three decide to dope Ricky and send him to be captured so they could force Higgins’ hand into conducting an air raid on the rebels and saving all the prisoners. But the excitement, the comic and the wonderfulness of this show doesn’t really come from what the characters do, but how they do it. Michael is the poker faced player, always coming up with wicked plans in his mind that most of the times have dirty tricks in them. Bill may not be just as charming as Martin Riggs, because let’s face it – there’s only one Mel Gibson, but he is just as mad and does a just as fine impersonation of Connery. And Casey is in fact a lethal weapon trapped in a boring biology teacher’s body, which is actually the perfect disguise. And as for Ricky, well… he’s the little Puerto Rican that could; confused, out of the loop, naive and full of heart, this little fella is full of his own tricks and surprises.
I hope people get this show. It’s on a Friday night, it’s not your typical soap, but it’s got soul and we need more of that around here.
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