The thirteenth and final episode of freshman NBC drama State of Affairs screened last night, and while it had a sizable cliffhanger, the chances of NBC offering a second season to the series is slim to put it lightly.
Nevertheless, the season (series?) finale was a reasonably good episode in general. Titled "Deadcheck" it had story by Dario Scardapane & Samantha Stratton, with teleplay by Joe Carnahan & Michael Perri. Joe Carnahan also directed the episode.
With all the dirty laundry laid bare in last week's penultimate hour, I found last night's hour contained very little that actually surprised me. Perhaps most importantly, we knew it was Victor Gantry's Krieg Group (TKG) who had formed Ar Rissalah and was seeking to use it as leverage to gain hitman style contracts from the US government. A good part of the episode was spent playing this out, with Gantry and President Payton locking horns in the Oval Office over the issue. We knew Kurt had no intention of betraying the CIA despite working under Gantry, and we saw that come to fruition also.
While all that was taking place on home soil, Charlie winged her way to Baraki, Afghanistan, on a quest to end Omar Fatah's reign of terror. While I personally wouldn't have worn a white shirt into a gunfight for fear of getting spotted as well as getting it dirty, Charlie did anyway, and fortunately she got (very, very) lucky and was able to clean out Fatah's troops with the help of a mysterious marksman, and after a war of words, decked Fatah once and for all. I must say I was very pleased he got what he deserved.
However before all this, Charlie bizarrely resigned from her CIA position, and confessed to President Payton what she was up to. Payton basically said yes to the whole thing and gave Charlie her own private number. What's more, the CIA team were with her all the way, providing intel to Charlie while she was in the field. So why she resigned is beyond me. Payton's chief of staff also pulled the pin, but his reasons were far better outlined and justified. The same could be said for Payton's husband, Marshall, wanting his wife to give up the White House.
Perhaps the one big unknown the hour produced was the remaining Ar Rissalah bombings, but even this was rather underdone. One of the bombs took out a mall, another nabbed a ute, but all but one of the others were deactivated without any harm done. Charlie must have a degree in astronomy because it was her that connected the dots - literally - to determine the locations of the bombs were correlated to the stars that make up the Pegasus constellation.
Let's be honest - the story was pretty ordinary. It may have done the job for a standard episode during the season, but it was well short of the standard needed in a season finale. Joe Carnahan's directing was also a drop from last week's excellent work by Ben Bray. The one shining light where Carnahan did do a good job was in the dream sequences when Charlie was thinking about Nick.
That brings me to the two cliffhangers the season finale leaves fans with. The first is the identity of the mystery marksman. I believe one could safely assume said marksman was the man driving the truck down to greet Charlie after she finished off Fatah. Could it be that Nick is still alive, or could it be Aaron Payton? The second cliffhanger is that unmistakable sound of an incoming missile, and Charlie appears to have her eyes locked onto it. I don't have to explain what is probably going to happen next.
I have to admit those cliffhangers are pretty solid, but it's a shame we'll probably never see the outcome. It sums up the season for the most part - there were several moments of brilliance and a few very good episodes, combined with likable characters and a high standard of acting, but the storyline was tough to follow, and some of the storyline forks that occurred during the season simply weren't executed well enough. After a good episode focused on one fork, the next episode would leave said fork hanging and focus on something else.
Though the characters were good for the most part, and the office vibe I've discussed numerous times was a real positive, I found myself thinking during the last few days how much the character of Charleston Tucker has deviated away from what we were promised in the series premiere. We saw a woman who was damaged, slept around, drank to excess, and was still very much in love with her dead fiancée. When Nick Vera was more heavily introduced after the first three or four episodes, the character changed completely, and the vast majority of the romantic stuff was between Charlie and Nick. It's as if Aaron Payton was forgotten altogether, and the damaged woman who we were introduced to was suddenly reformed, with no more therapy sessions in this year's run of episodes. With where the storyline has ended up now after 13 episodes, I think the "original" Charleston Tucker would have provided much more interesting and compelling viewing, because damaged characters are far easier to explore and unravel compared to one which carries no such demons.
Hopefully creator Alexi Hawley, the writers, directors and producers, will take a few lessons away from their work with State of Affairs, and come up with something more original, easier to understand, and more compelling and interesting. It'll have been a good learning experience for all involved.
Thanks for reading my State of Affairs season finale review, and my other reviews throughout the season. The next NBC drama I'm very keenly awaiting is Odyssey, which is starting to see some promotion as the series premiere edges closer. Keep an eye out for Daniel van der Veer's series premiere advance preview and his ongoing reviews throughout its season. Odyssey has a lot going for it - its pilot was fantastic, and perhaps more importantly, it's just the kind of show I enjoy. I''ll leave it to Daniel to fill you in on the rest.
Odyssey premieres Sunday, April 5, 10|9c, on NBC.
The last scene was actually a good ending.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was, like I said the two cliffhangers are good ones
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit behind on this show but since I don't mind reading spoilers for the episodes, I scrolled through your review anyway to the season reflection. I agree that the show has deviated far from the pilot. I thought it would be more of a procedural with some serialized aspects here and there, but it went full serialized mode in episode 4. I can't help but think that perhaps Edward Allen Bernero, the showrunner who left the series over creative reasons before it aired, left because he didn't agree to focus on the serialized story only. He wrote episode 2 which was a pretty case-of-the-week kind of episode.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the story was sometimes hard to follow. Sometimes it was overly complicated and sometimes things didn't make sense. The episodes were very action-packed, and sometimes I enjoyed it, but sometimes I hardly followed it. However, the hate for Katherine Heigl was so overblown. I think she did a great job.
And I'm very excited for Odyssey as well! The pilot was outstanding, possibly the best 2015 midseason drama pilot I've seen so far. Thanks for the reference, I look forward to previewing and reviewing it!
Yeah you're dead right about the serial / procedural aspects. Yet another way the show ended up evolving which seemed a bit unplanned.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I was able to (barely at times) keep pace with the storyline is because I was writing reviews. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be surprised to find myself up a creek without a paddle. The middle-eastern names and references make following things even harder, especially seeing as some of the villains had no face to their name until much later in the piece.
And yeah, Katherine Heigl is always on the receiving end for some reason and I've never understood why. This role suited her for the most part and she was pretty consistent throughout. She's not the best but she's also far from the worst.
That aside, like you said, bring on Odyssey!
I actually thought the final scene with Charlie taking out fatah, the mysterious shooter and incoming missile was all just a dream - it was just too easy. Too bad we will never know.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the reviews Jimmy, just watched all episodes this week and read after each ep your reviews.
ReplyDeleteHaving the advantage of seeing all 13 episodes in a short time span, I had no problems following the story lines except for maybe 2 or 3 things I maybe missed in the first 2-3 eps.
My overal opinion of this show is good, it could have been great or even awesome if it weren't for a few unrealistic story lines/plots, mainly the TKG conspiracy. It all hinged in the end on the president responding to blackmail. Which was ridiculous cause she didn't lie on national tv, she was only misinformed!
On numerous occasion the show just glossed over big/major events like Kurts betrayel, Ray's absence. I think I actually liked more (and that is a first!) the procedural episodes over the serial ones!
I found all characters to be very good except for Nick and Payton. Never really saw that huge connection Nick and Charlie had, nor was that build up good in my opinion. LIke you say, they suddenly drop all the Aaron flashbacks? The connection between the president and Charlie was better, but in every scene between them it was Charlie who shone, pushing Payton to the background in every important scene. I guess that was an unintended side effect of having Katherine Heigl on the show, but to me it made the president in the show a very weak character and never really liked her.
I really loved the clifhanger, hopefully we get some closure in that, although I doubt it. *crosses-fingers*