La agencia

We started to watch the show to get a David Clennon fix. The first few episodes didn't grab us, but we've started watching again, having become rabid CSI fans. Wow! "The Agency" just gets better and better. Daniel Benzali adds an incredible edge to the show and the cast dynamic. We can't wait to see how the relationship between him and the new director (Beau Bridges) unfolds. I also agree with another poster that one of the best parts of the show is what Terri, Joshua and company do in the graphics department: I'd like some of that software! The plots, subplots, internal politics, interesting characters and Bondsian gadgets make for one of the best hours on TV.

I rarely watch network TV for anything more than an occasional graze, but since Daniel Benzali joined the cast, the Agency is my one unbreakable weekly appointment with a network show. The three-way relationship between Bridges, Carroll, and he has just the right edge. And, Carroll works so much better with both of them than he did with the holier-than-thou Pierce (insipidly played by Ronny Cox, a normally fine actor in the wrong role). In fact the series has improved markedly with every addition AND DELETION. The feckless Gil Bellows was the only agent who seemed not to belong, and he left in a fitting and dynamic demise. Speight gets better and better, and works well with Clennon and Turco.

But, what really rocks me is the even-handedness of the scripts, dealing head-on with terrorist issues more objectively and evenhandedly than our media dare to, and not a false note has been struck all year since this show came to be. Any show boasting Wolfgang Peterson and Shaun Cassidy as co-producers can be expected to be unusual, and the Agency succeeds in being anything BUT run-of-the-mill. Long may it run!

A TV show doesn't necessarily have to have all-out action in order to attract me. As long as the events are at least capable of keeping my attention, then I'm there. THE AGENCY is one such show. So far, not a single car chase, but all the stories have been well-written suspense/thrillers. It's like a small screen CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, with a great ensemble cast: Gill Bellows, Gloria Reuben, Paige Turco, David Clennon, Rocky Carroll, Daniel Benzali, and the great Will Patton. I was disappointed to learn Ronny Cox's character was being written out early on, but Beau Bridges has proved to be a suitable replacement. I like how the show often involves three different aspects of the agency: the field work (handled by Bellows and Reuben), the intelligence gathering (done by Patton and Carroll), and the creation of everything from fake passports to disguises (provided by Turco and Clennon). In fact, the jobs carried out by the graphics department is my personal favorite of the three. I love watching how Turco and team create virtually anything that's needed for an operation, be it a fake document to replace a real one, a bomb disguised as a flower pot, or an entire cover office complete with fake college degrees and kid drawings on the walls.

I think the show has taken on a little bit more reality in the post-September 11 world. Whereas before it would probably be written off as just another show, people can now view it as a glimpse into the world of the people who spend every day of their lives helping to protect our country. The episodes after 9/11 have done a great job of referencing current events without hitting us over the head, and I hope this show is able to stick around for awhile, because it's really well-done, and I think it has a lot of potential (same as THE FUGITIVE, but look what CBS did to that). Hopefully, the network won't repeat that mistake with THE AGENCY.

I think that The Agency is a wonderful show because it is not fake. Many of the shows out there today have wonderful acting but they don't seem real, they don't seem to hit home with some people. The Agency takes real things that have happened and turned them into Storylines and Scripts. Like the Anthrax and the smallpox episodes. Things that really happened. Even though the show is just a show and none of it is really real and we shouldn't depend on it for the answers but sometimes it gives us a sense of comfort because it shows us what the CIA does to handle national problems. I hope that this show stays on the air for a long time, as long as ER and NYPD Blue. I hope also that more people will start to watch the Agency to keep it on the air because it is a truly wonderful show.

After seeing episodes on Al Qaeda and Anthrax, I am convinced that The Agency is true "must-see" TV. After Sept 11th, The Agency's plots became more real than they had expected, and the topics more surreal. Viewers may get the same enjoyment out of the CIA's intelligence-gathering techniques that they do from "CSI"'s evidence-gathering techniques. The Agency is very similar to it's lead-in, and it has better acting (something CSI isn't known for.)

Will Patton is the real star, I love everything he's done and he doesn't disappoint here. Gil Bellows has been equally fantastic as the new agent following in his brother's footsteps. Paige Turco and David Clennon are fun to watch together, and I like the stuff they do (photograph and passport editing) more than the field agent's stuff. Glorea Roth and Rocky Carroll are good but not great, and Ronny Cox is variable. Overall, it's a very enjoyable show that, when it works (about 80% of the time), is some of the best TV out there.