Skip the long list of cheesy cable summer series bubbling up in coming weeks. Most are marred by lame line readings executed by mostly unimpressive actors.
Instead, if above-average drama with a mix of action and romance are to your taste, go directly to “Covert Affairs,” a standout spy series with a great and expanding cast and smart acting.
“Covert Affairs” launches its second season tonight at 8 on USA. (The preceding hour, “White Collar,” an action-dramedy about a con man, does boast Eliza Dushku in a guest role later in the season, but otherwise doesn’t warrant serious attention.)
There’s a running thread in “Covert Affairs” but not a very dense one. This is one spy series that doesn’t capitalize on an impenetrable mythology, but rather lets the characters dominate.
The fact that “Covert Affairs” is overstocked with fine acting talent makes us wonder who’s going to be “disappeared” by midseason. Can they really afford to keep this many good actors on the payroll?
Piper Perabo continues to light up the screen as pouty super-secret spy Annie Walker. Christopher Gorham (“Ugly Betty”) returns as blind CIA operative Auggie Anderson (he’s got leading-man potential and is shown working out in the gym as well as walking with a white cane). Sendhil Ramamurty (“Heroes”) plays Jai Wilcox, so far underused in the role, but with heavyweight potential.
Kari Marchette (“Invasion”) is Annie’s CIA boss Joan Campbell; Anne Dudek (“House”) is Annie’s clueless sister Danielle, who thinks Annie works at the Smithsonian.
This season, the recurring Peter Gallagher signs on as a regular, playing Arthur Campbell, Joan’s wife and director of the Clandestine Service Department of the CIA.
Every time you anticipate a dip in the action, smart interactions and character development add energy to a scene.
Formulaic spy talk like “Stay on your surveil!” and “Do a head tail!” (that is, follow the suspect from in front of them) is less distinctive than the quieter moments when the characters reveal themselves.
Once again, Dudek deserves more screen time, but it’s not really her story. As the season opens, Annie’s long-lost love, the mysterious Ben Mercer (Eion Bailey) is attacked at a hospital. We don’t see much of him as he’s stuck doing desk work after an injury and then turns up missing. He won’t be missing for long.
The tone vascillates between cute and seriously suspenseful — just right for a summer spy series.
Couric to ABC.
ABC and Katie Couric finally announced their deal Monday: she’ll launch a daytime talk show in 2012 for the Disney/ABC TV Group.
It’s unclear which local station will carry the hour.
For Denver’s Channel 7, an ABC affiliate, a Couric show could be good news — or it could prove too expensive.
“It will be on the open market,” KMGH general manager Byron Grandy said. “In the syndication world, it’s about who’s willing to pay the most for the show and who has the best time period. I will look at it like everyone else in the market, I’m sure.”
Channel 7 is currently committed to airing an unusually timed 3 p.m. newscast, but Grandy declined to say that timeslot is unshakable. “I’m committed to airing news,” he said simply.
Tens of millions of dollars — that’s how much Katie Couric stands to make by having an ownership stake in her new show. Some thought she’d join the network, since ABC has openings after canceling two long-running soaps (“All My Children,” “One Life to Live”). But no, she’s in it for the syndication jackpot.
She’ll join ABC News this summer. In a statement, ABC News president Ben Sherwood praised Couric as “the ultimate utility player”; locally, Grandy said “it’s a great move for ABC.”
There are no guarantees. Jane Pauley famously flopped in the talk show arena after a brief try in 2004. She, too, was once America’s sweetheart on NBC’s “Today.”
All we know that the syndicated talk market is in flux post-“Oprah,” with Anderson Cooper joining the fray as well.
Locally, “Anderson” will launch on KTVD weekday mornings this fall, but that deal allows it to move to sister-station KUSA if it’s a success.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
