Sleeper Cell

The only thing worse than the suspense of this program was the arrival of the closing credits.

The title tells the setting. Saying more would detract and it would be nearly impossible not to be a spoiler as well.

If suspense, plots twists, good acting and believable plots are your cup of tea then you are in for one fine treat.

The casting was perfect, as was, on the whole, the character development. Every performer was very believable in their roles and thus I did not have to be annoyed by the usual weak performer that pulls down the entire performance.

If all television was this good I would become a full time couch potato............pass the sour cream please.

This is an extremely involving series that is well casted and portraits a sensitive subject with great splendor. We follow Michael Ealy as the undercover FBI agent Darwyn, set to infiltrate a terror cell lead by Farik (Oder Fehr). The series is very well written, and has enough plot twists to keep you sitting at the edge of your seat waiting for whatever happens next.

Michael Ealy is by my definition one of the best actors I've seen portraying an undercover agent. Icey cold on the outside, but still a good human being underneath trying his best to keep his head afloat in a highly emotional roller-coaster ride that FBI has had him embark on. Oder Fehr on the other hand comes off a guy that pretty much could fit into any social scenario. Big and strong, but yet able to disappear into the gray mass if so needed. Highly authoritative and extremely cunning. The way the two communicate on screen is nothing short of spectacular.

The way the story develops, and the level of detail that the script offers makes the whole story extremely believable, and also very true to life I would imagine. It is of such magnitude that you're left with the feeling of being insecure, not knowing what might happen next in real life. We read about terror every day, and here we are given a good sneak peak into an underworld which most of us know very little about.

It's a series that will for sure have you coming back for more, sitting there at the edge of your seat just waiting for next weeks episode to come on. It's a sure winner in my eyes, and I have no problems stating that this series is on my list of all time best.

The conversation of extremist attacks and ideologies hasn't left our society since this show was made and tragically canceled. The exploration of what compels even ordinary men and women to pursue something so violent in the name of religious ideology is fascinating to watch.

Sleeper Cell did a fine job of showing a balanced viewpoint with balanced characters. The series follows a secret agent who infiltrates a sleeper cell group of unlikely militants planning a big attack. The tense situations our protagonist gets himself into is gripping but also endearing as you see what a more moderate believer is like. Definitely worth watching!

I saw episode one by accident while channel surfing Sunday night. After about 5 minutes, I was hooked. I can still say the same after episode three last night.

The show has the feel and look of a first-class feature film. In fact, this type of cable series should make feature film producers start looking over their shoulders. With shows like this and others like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, HBO and Showtime have given the industry something to be very worried about - and deservedly so. I go to the movies about once a week and all I can say is Hollywood better get its act together.

The cast is superb, notably Michael Ealy and Oded Fehr. Ealy portrays his character, an undercover FBI agent, with just the right amount of passion, conflict, and boiling rage. Fehr is evil incarnate, although you can say that Dylan's line, "Sympathy for the Devil" is right on the nose here – more on that in a second. What a coup (and how ironic) to have an Israeli actor play an Arab terrorist. In an interview, this gifted actor expressed his revulsion and loathing for what "Farik", his character, represents. It made the part the most challenging thing he's done so far. Knowing that, as you watch him execute his nefarious plans, makes him even more compelling. Casting non-Arabs to play the other terrorists was a stroke of genius on the part of the creators of the show, Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff. These people are like us and live among us…a disturbing thought and a very real possibility that cranks the fear factor way up.

The interesting thing about the way that these Islamic extremists are presented to us is that you can't help feeling sympathy for them. They are likable and, in their own warped way, virtuous. That's another aspect of the show that pulls at the heart-strings and adds to the biting conflict that is the mark of a brilliant drama.

You can bet that I'll be watching the rest of the series being broadcast back to back (there is a God!) for the next two weeks. They are replaying most of the episodes throughout this week, so if you missed the first ones, you'll have the opportunity to catch up. I suggest you start with Ep. 1 if you can although each one stands very well on its own.

Far more than anything I've watched on TV in a long time, this entire series made me uncomfortable and uneasy. It wasn't just the reality of it, though that was unsettling, especially for someone who lives in the LA area and knows a lot of those locations.

But it was the way I was relating to the characters, especially the members of the cell besides Farik. I would find myself agreeing with some of the things they said, or empathizing with them in some other way -- really, just seeing them as human. The show would start taking me down that path, and then utterly ruthlessly snap me back when those same characters did something to remind me of what they are and what they've become. Each time -- as much as I should have expected it -- it came as a shock.

This is a great series, but overall, watching it was a pretty unsettling experience. It forced me to ask a lot of questions I simply don't have the answers for. And I don't think anyone else does, either. The best comparisons to other material would be to the films Traffic and Syriana, but because of the length (10 hours as compared to 2.5) and the focus on just a few characters, the emotional investment in this story was a lot greater.

In terms of what to expect, this is not an easy to digest, fast-paced show -- I think the analogies to 24 are off-base in that respect. Yeah, it has to do with terrorism -- so do Victory at Entebbe and Executive Decision -- but really, it doesn't have much in common with movies and TV shows in that genre. The spiritual roots of this series are in material like Wiseguy (to which there's a nice tip of the hat in episode 5), or Donnie Brasco, about the experience of an undercover agent. If you are expecting lots of things going boom -- well, this might not be what you're looking for.

The performances are top-notch, especially Michael Ealy and Oded Fehr. The entire series has a sense of realism throughout that keeps the tension strong throughout. Just excellent work all around, and Showtime deserves serious kudos for upping the quality of its original offerings with a series like this.