Intelligence – Pilot

One of the new series this season is ‘Intelligence’. It’s a story about Gabriel Vaughn (Josh Holloway, 'Lost') who has a chip implanted in his brain which gives him computer functions. This makes him a super spy and hacker all at once next to his military training. He is an addition to the American defense team, but also one of their most valuable assets because of his special talents. Because a man with so much knowledge in his brain is bound to be a target for many enemies once they find out what he’s capable of.

Dr. Shenendoah Cassidy (John Billingsley, ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’) is the creator of the implant in Gabriel's head. In the past couple of years he’s grown close to Gabriel and started considering him to be his second son, which causes some jealousy with his actual son Nelson (P.J. Byrne, ‘The Game’). Head of US Cyber Command, who’s behind this whole operation, is Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger, ‘CSI’). During the first episode she appoints Riley Neal (Meghan Ory, ‘Once Upon a Time’) as Gabriel’s protector. Riley is a Secret Service agent who protected the president until she was asked to do this job. She never applied for it, which makes her a bit hesitant at first about taking the job. But she soon learns how important it is that Gabriel is protected well in order to not only keep him safe, but also the rest of the USA.

The ‘Intelligence’ promo was very impressive. Excitement, action, humor, it had it all! The cast is great as well. I’ve seen all of the main characters in their previous shows and loved each and every one of them in it. So my expectations were high when I started watching the pilot episode. But honestly, the pilot didn’t live up to those expectations. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good first episode! But I got the feeling that I’ve seen it all before, and therefore it became too predictable which prevented me from really getting sucked into the story lines. The promo also gave away too many spoilers. Some things that happened and most of the funny remarks were already in there which also made the pilot less interesting.

Besides all the action there’s another important thing in the life of Gabriel. And that’s his wife who has been missing for several years now. She turned against the US during her last mission and has never been seen again (after that). The government thinks she’s dead but Gabriel refuses to believe that without proof. We find out a bit more about that final mission during this pilot, including some clues about whether or not she’s still alive. Gabriel is a bit unstable and emotional at some points because of these events, and of course he will use his computer knowledge to his own advantage in the search for his wife.

‘Intelligence’ is a very promising series. The story has potential and the cast is amazing. I don’t have anything negative to say about the acting. But the writers should make the story lines less predictable in order to make this show a success. In my opinion, ‘Intelligence’ doesn’t stand out in everything that the American TV networks have to offer at the moment. It’s definitely not a bad show, it just needs something more. Hopefully they’ll work on that during the upcoming episodes, then ‘Intelligence’ could very well become an outstanding new series in the US and maybe even the rest of the world.