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.

I'm really afraid that the last episode of The Agency was broadcast tonight. I will miss this show. Yes, the storylines were good and contained just enough suspense and humor, but the real strength of this show was the character development. As I'm a veteran government bureaucrat, it was such a treat to watch The Agency. Unlike in so many Hollywood action shows, the characters here were not superhuman. You could easily picture Jackson Haisley at a Sat AM kids soccer match, Lex & Stiles watching a Skins game at the sports bar, Terri & Joshua doing some lunchtime shopping at Tyson's Corners or Georgetown, or Carl at Kennedy Center. Even the satanic Robert Quinn was just a guy trying to do the best job he could for his country. And who wouldn't want to have a boss like ex-Senator Gage. That collection of characters and the actors who portrayed them would have fit well into scores of offices around the beltway. Stiles was borderline at first, but even he became real. Not supermodels, not superbeings. Just normal folks. They and the show will be missed. Please smarten up, CBS!

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 have recently caught this show on Saturdays (Yes, I have no life) and I have found it very amusing and interesting. I mean, in "French Kiss" four men in a MBE pull guns on each other thinking they are all terrorists only to find out they work for the CIA, FBI, INS and Secret Service respectively--that's a classic, especially since they really don't ever know what the other is doing. However, I find it remarkably amusing because, well, when you know enough about the

background of a show like this or the West Wing, it's interesting to see the little coincidences and foibles in the show. This show is funny, even at times when I think it should be dead serious I find it humorous. BTW, I noticed that Jennifer Brandes and Chris Hepler have written a couple of episodes this season--both of which I found to be very cool. Jennifer and Chris wrote a book that I thoroughly enjoyed because while it was factually accurate and intriguing, it was also written with a lot of humor and wit to it (except where certain parts were obviously injected by the editors for apparently no reason). Good work guys.