Dominic Fumusa as Detective Ken Mallory.Laya DeLeon Hayes as Delilah McCall-Fulton.And Young Dan still thinks a talking car or high-tech helicopter wouldn’t hurt. Critics, on the other hand, are more likely to lament that with this cast, so much more might be possible. There’s a comfortable mediocrity to the formula that should land with many viewers. Unlike the upcoming Clarice, where one could sense the creators trying to use the brand name as a license to venture into some dark and very un-CBS places, The Equalizer feels designed to fit in with the CBS lineup, whether you match it with an NCIS or the network’s slate of polished, forgettable Friday retreads. Noth, scruffy and evasive, and Kittles, able to match Queen Latifah’s swagger, are assets as well - and everything is always improved with a dose of Toussaint, even if she has close to nothing to do here. It’s a credit to how good all of the actors are that even if nothing they’re doing or saying is the least bit memorable, I could generally enjoy watching Queen Latifah bantering with an unusually at-ease Goldberg and with Lapira, clearly getting a kick out of playing a dart-tossing, gun-wielding badass. Will they find a way to reconceive the show’s physical beats to play to the varied gifts of its star? Maybe? Hopefully? She’s funny, and commands every room she enters, but either she wasn’t comfortable with the action or Friedlander misdirected the action such that when Robyn showcases those vaunted military moves, it’s all stunt person, no Queen Latifah. What the show has going for it, then, is a really great cast led by Queen Latifah, who gives even the most ecru of kiss-offs some attitude. Credit where credit is due: At least the unremarkable procedural elements in the pilot are executed with proficiency, unlike the premise-introducing first hour of The CW’s Walker, Texas Ranger reboot. It’s forgettably uncomplicated and bland. I referenced Person of Interest earlier, though there’s absolutely no indication that The Equalizer is interested in shades of gray. Meanwhile, you get Tory Kittles as the NYPD detective who you know is going to start out distrusting Robyn, but will eventually come to realize that they’re on the same side and whatnot. There is also the occasional scene with Robyn and Delilah or Robyn and her aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint) so that you know that she’s got a heart. The script is mostly exposition, oblique references to things that happened on past covert assignments. There’s nary a twist in the first hour that isn’t easily foreseeable, and the dialogue is by-the-numbers tough-guy material at one point, Robyn barges in on the Russian baddy about to torture the victim-of-the-week and he demands “Who the hell are you?” and she quickly responds “Neighborhood watch,” and viewers will be all, “Damn, middling burn, Queen Latifah!” Pilot director Liz Friedlander adds a little gloss to the New Jersey and New York locations, but the primary takeaway from the only episode sent to critics is how basic it is. "The One We Wouldn't Normally Do": The Uncensored Story of the 'Friends' Super Bowl Episode This leads Robyn to seek help from buddies Melody (Liza Lapira), a sniper-turned-bar owner, and her husband Harry (Adam Goldberg), a hacker so powerful he had to fake his own death to avoid government attention. When a waitress witnesses a murder and then becomes the primary suspect, Robyn rather arbitrarily decides to help her, running afoul of a billionaire with deep pockets and a team of henchmen. But Robyn isn’t sure what she wants to do and she tells as much to her former boss William Bishop ( Chris Noth) - cut and paste “generic enigmatic career spy” from your procedural script - when he offers her a job in private security. Her daughter Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes) - cut and paste “generic troubled, but well-intentioned teen” from your procedural script - thinks Robyn is newly retired from some job as a bigwig at a charitable organization. Our hero is now Robyn McCall - Washington and Edward Woodward were “Robert” - recently retired from some stealthy corner of the CIA after something went bad in Venezuela, or whatever. Or just a workable template for almost any broadcast procedural. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller’s pilot script feels like it could have been a spec script for Castle or Person of Interest or any of a dozen comparable shows. In the new CBS version, getting a major showcase this weekend after the Super Bowl, the generic aspects are definitely what stand out.
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