3 out of 5

Created by: David Chasten, Nicole Perlman (developed by)

covers season 1

The series that spring from these vast interconnected (or pseudo-interconnected, sharing a vibe / creators) worlds of procedurals can sometimes be rating on a sliding scale of how one variant compares to another to another (and maybe to the grandaddy o.g. Law & Order), but I think that’s a little cheap. It’s a consideration – we watch these shows with probably some desire that they’ll fulfill a formula – but they should also prove themselves on their own terms.

CIA, springing off from “the FBIs” franchise, most prominently cross-overs Jeremy Sisto from the main show in that -verse, tasking FBIer Bill (Nick Gehlfuss) as a loan to the CIA, kinda sorta to team up with resident badass agent Colin (Tom Ellis), but also secretly to suss out a potential mole, giving us an ideal structure for an ongoing plotline with case-of-the-weeks populating most of the runtime. Taken on its own terms, CIA is really, really close to being a standout: the casting of Gehlfuss and Ellis is choice, the duo doing a great odd couple routine that feels very organic, and the balance between smart and fun detective work and action is pretty slick: none of the first season’s twelve episodes feels like a drag, or filler. That same balance applies to the mole plot and the week’s distraction; while the latter sometimes seems a little silly to start – like why is this particular murder such a big deal (in the context of the show) – the writers always find a way to spin it up into something more devious, helped along by Nick and Tom’s chemistry and a good-enough budget to give us high octane stuff when needed. And as to the former season-long thread, that’s especially well handled, drip-dropping details that get effectively threaded into each episode, since part of Bill’s task is to observe the CIA team as a whole to figure out who’s up to the extra shady stuff.

But I did say that CIA is close: it actually ends up getting harmed in that regard by the popcorn stuff – trying to flesh out a larger cast of characters gives us some rotating faces that never quite get enough screentime to feel as important as they maybe should; and there are shortcuts on the procedural aspects that can, unfortunately, feel especially stupid. It’s stuff that takes you out of viewing CIA as a standalone experience, and instead makes you rate it on that sliding scale of similar shows, where we kind of swallow the stupid for the sake of our weekly fix, assuming we like the characters and the needle drops chosen by that particular showrunner or whomever.

That aside, what felt most important is that CIA remained consistent: its main characters arcs are consistent; its tone is consistent; the stakes feel consistent. As mentioned – nothing felt like filler; I never felt like I was churning through an ep, or tuning in with a wait-and-see-if-this-week-is-good vibe. If allowed to step off of the ol’ reliable procedural path a bit more – and that’s admittedly the risk-taking shows like this earn in later seasons – I can definitely see CIA becoming one of the standouts in the long run, but its initial steps are very promising regardless.