Warning: Spoilers here.
09/15/2008 - Christian Slater - NBC Fall Preview Party - Arrivals - Boulevard 3 - Hollywood, CA. USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
What a great surprise from NBC to enjoy this fall.
NBC's new series "My Own Worst Enemy" starring Christian Slater and Alfre Woodard starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up until the last frame. I was hooked immediately.
The story is a simple one; think “True Lies,” except Slater’s poor everyday Joe persona Henry Spivey is the only one not in on the deal.
That is until his tinkered-with "medial-temporal lobe" goes on the fritz, and then as they say, the jig is up, or at least much more complicated for his actual true identity as the resident over-achieving badass, Edward Albright, a man who birthed Henry with his own Bond-like “M’s” help, the cool cucumber Mavis (Alfre Woodard) nineteen years ago.
Edward has mad skills; he speaks 13 languages and possesses a Bourne Identity-filled arsenal of useful assassin capabilities such as bomb-rigging and a psychopathic detachment to kill efficiently and bail the scene; just in time for kindly dad Henry to be home for dinner.
The old chestnut that familiarity breeds contempt surfaces here, as Henry awakens unexpectedly as Edward, and vice-versa in the wrong settings.
The problem threatens the top-secret program Mavis oversees, and creates havoc and annoys the orderly, surgical striker Edward, while causing a bit of hero worship and wannabe stirrings for Henry, who isn’t too thrilled Edward’s having his way with his wife Angie (Madchen Amick), who is in the dark completely about all this dual-personality subterfuge.
But she certainly does enjoy her occasional "Edward" time.
The below-the-line crafts excel in his series too. Kudos to one of the finest cinematographers around, Oliver Bokelberg, who shot the beautiful “The Station Agent” and “The Visitor
Art director Val Wilt and Production designer Steve Hardie do an exemplary job as well creating Edward and Henry’s divergent stylish worlds.
The series ends with the set up and promise to explain all the cryptic mysteries of Edward. There is so much still to reveal in his vocational and psychological tool box there simply is not enough time to spill it all in a pilot. Lots of story to look forward to.
My Own Worst Enemy is one to watch.
NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy premieres at 10 p.m. ET Monday, Oct. 13.
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