First off, I
am so glad that I got this series, and I’m mostly still gushing because at the very least, I’ve had my curiosity satisfied.
That being said, the whole experience of watching The Handler reminded me of my experience with trying to watch Defying Gravity when it first aired. I watched it wanting to like it as much as I like Grey’s Anatomy, because they were created by the same person – but it just lacked so much of what I enjoy in Grey’s, so I couldn’t ever really get into it. Same thing with The Handler vs. CSI: NY, or even The Handler vs. Medical Investigation. I knew from the beginning that it was about undercover investigations more than anything, but I guess I was kind of expecting a bit more
crime solving in this show. I’ve been unforgivably spoiled by all the procedurals I watch. The Handler has tons of suspense moments and action, which I like; but it’s way more FBI-hierarchy and Mafia-esque than what I’m used to; it kind of reminded me of watching The Godfather, which I’ve never been able to get into (and have yet to finish). There’s rarely any mystery to the case, or surprising twists – they go undercover to confirm a theory, rather than to solve a mystery. Often, the culprit or the answer to the case is basically who/what they’d expected it to be from the beginning. I know that’s pretty much the point of the show; Joe Renato's (Pantoliano’s character) job isn’t so much to figure things out along the way as it is to know enough of what’s going on beforehand so he can convincingly play along with the people he’s trying to fool – and to teach his students/fellow undercover agents to do the same. But still.
Watching Anna Belknap and Hill Harper totally make the show worth it anyway; but what sucks is that they don’t actually get a lot of time onscreen. I can’t ever, ever complain about CSI:NY or Miami being All About Mac/Horatio again, because the Handler was
all about Joe. Kind of the way Castle is largely about the title character. Which makes sense, and I certainly don’t resent the show for that, but I do find it disappointing that so far, there’s very little in the way of team dynamics, or team interactions that don’t involve Joe. That’s an element I generally find necessary to most, if not all, of the shows I enjoy; it’s a huge part of the reason I like CSI:LV and NY (and even Miami) and Medical Investigation, among others. The characters that do interact with each other seem to have a great dynamic; Joe and Darnell (Hill’s character) have an amazing friendship, as do Lily and Darnell, and Joe and Heather and Marcy (other female character), and Darnell and Marcy have crazy chemistry (that may be the first time I’ve actually
seen such a thing onscreen). And Lily’s crush on Joe is cute too, although I’m going to have to wait to see how, or if, that even plays out to make a final call on it. But there’s no real sense of a team. Some of the characters haven’t even met the others. Again, this may be the point of the show – I’m guessing undercover work is easier or more convincing if the agent isn’t completely aware of who is on his/her team. But ...well, still.
Then there are the stereotypes. Ugh, uck,
uck, the stereotypes that are used on this show for the agents to play into ...I’m still twitching, it’s that annoying. Sticking to Anna’s character ‘cause this is her thread, but so far as I’ve seen (I’m about halfway through the series), 4 out of 5 times she’s the one sent undercover as the same stereotype. Sexy airhead waitress, sexy airhead hairdresser, sexy somewhat-airhead librarian, sexy (drunk) girl at the bar. Although I can forgive this last one, from the fourth or fifth episode, because I am LOLing forever at Lily and Darnell’s over-the-top fight scenes – they were undercover as a dysfunctional couple, to distract the bartender. Those are my absolute favourite scenes in the show to date.
I know squat about undercover work, except for the very, very limited examples I’ve sometimes seen in other procedural cop shows; so I don’t know if stereotyping is a necessity that comes with the job. Maybe it’s important for the agents to fit as many preconceived notions that the perp might have about them. And I’ll totally admit it’s just plain fun to watch Lily go from vapid and wide-eyed when she’s undercover to cynical and edgy when the people she’s trying to fool have left. I have to say that Anna’s portrayal of the more annoying stereotypes does a lot to make those scenes palatable for me – she brings this kind of irony to those roles, along with a touch of over-the-top-ness that lets me in on the joke; which makes those scenes a little more fun as opposed to teeth-gnashingly annoying. But the stereotypes grated a
lot (although admittedly, not as much as the stereotypes Hill Harper’s and Tanya Wright’s and Lola Glaudini's characters had to keep playing into), and I’m really hoping there are a few more episodes where she’s sent undercover in a different role. My second-favourite scenes in the show to date are from the first episode, ‘cause she was facing off against Joe as this grungy, emo-kid panhandler/drug-dealer, and I absolutely
love the way she played that role. It got me hooked right away – although it ended up not getting much focus throughout the rest of the episode (turned out that Lily was being given an initiation by Darnell [Hill Harper’s character], without being aware of it).
Btw, considering all I just said about stereotypes, I’m happy to report that Lily
wasn’t the girl dancing on that pole in the opening credits of the show
It was a character from the first episode who ended up dying halfway through.
On Lily’s character herself.. okay, this, I think I need to see more of the show to really get figure it out.I haven’t seen a whole lot of screentime where she’s not undercover. She’s a little like S2!Lindsay, in that whole new-girl, eager-for-anything enthusiasm she has, but overall she’s a lot ...darker than Lindsay. Which is odd, because I see Lindsay as having one hell of a dark side, but Lily just seems more gritty, more used to the hardships of life. In her first episode I thought Joe found her on the street and “adopted” her, so to speak – later episodes have me questioning that assumption, but I still wonder.
