"The Catch" Gets Caught Off-Guard

In the increasingly crowded television landscape, few things are more frustrating than a promising series that doesn't quite live up to its potential. Take "The Catch," the latest offering from ABC uber-producer Shonda Rhimes, who is also responsible for such breakout hits as "Scandal" and "How To Get Away With Murder." Coming from that pedigree alone, expectations for the show were already high. Add the verified star power of leads Mireille Enos ("The Killing") and Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under"), and the show coulda/shoulda/woulda knocked it right out of the park. So where did it go wrong? True, "The Catch" beat the odds and got renewed for a second season, but the series needs to patch up a few weak spots if they plan to stay on the air.

Don't get me wrong -- I enjoy the show enough as it is, but the thought that it could be better is always replaying in the back of my mind, even during its stronger aspects. "The Catch" began with a tantalizing premise: private investigator Alice finds out that her fiancée Christopher (a.k.a. Ben) has been conning her before he disappears with her life savings. Between her firm's regular cases, Alice reluctantly works with the FBI to track him down. Looks good on paper, right? Interestingly enough, the show underwent some redevelopment between the pilot being picked up and the series being produced, notably in some plot mechanics and character functions as well as casting. After creative differences with the network, presumably over the tone and direction of future episodes, creator Jennifer Schuur was replaced with showrunner Allan Heinberg. The current version of "The Catch" seems to represent a concept that wasn't originally planned, which is important to keep in mind for my later critiques.

But first, how about some good news? The highly capable cast is easy to watch and a welcome addition to the already diverse ShondaLand family. The dialogue is breezy and never takes itself too seriously given the subject matter, which could have easily tanked a lesser show that didn't know how to strike that balance. Enos and Krause have a dynamic onscreen chemistry as their relationship is revealed through flashbacks, and they smolder with a passion reminiscent of robber George Clooney and federal marshal Jennifer Lopez in the underrated 1998 chase film "Out Of Sight." The series also plays up its caper heritage with a spry score and split-screen cinematography that geometrically refracts the transitions between scenes -- perhaps a clever acknowledgment of the characters' (and the show's) dual natures.

This duality is where "The Catch" starts to struggle. It's common knowledge and a practical dramatic device that some good guys are bad and some bad guys are good. For a show about chasing criminals, "The Catch" is too black-and-white for its own good. As appealing as all of the supporting actors are, their characters need some serious help. Alice runs the PI firm with her best friend and business partner Val, and their colleagues Sophie and Danny help with cases. Though it's nice to see the women in charge, we barely know anything about the latter three's personalities or their lives outside of work. As a result, we end up getting more background about the villains than the heroes. Ben's partners-in-crime have more to do in the plot and their interactions are more multifaceted, making them worthier foils than the bland, reactionary contagonists deserve.

I keep wondering if these shortcomings are byproducts of altering the show's original incarnation? I wouldn't be surprised if "The Catch" was first envisioned with an edgier, antiheroic focus, but the network brass likely insisted on fleshing out the Alice-Ben romance to center stage in order to match the soapy inclinations of Rhimes' Thursday night lineup. In doing so, the show has alienated genuine opportunities to set itself apart. It doesn't need to overstuff its characters and subplots the way that "Grey's Anatomy" does, but it could use just a touch more of the wicked satire from "Scandal" and the moral ambiguity found in "Murder." Either way, it's clearly problematic when you find yourself rooting for the con artists simply because they're more believable and better equipped to carry the series.

Meanwhile, the biggest issue facing "The Catch" is whether or not it has the legs to keep the story moving and the viewers tuning in. Several key conflicts and questions were resolved too quickly in the first few episodes, let alone over the rest of the season. It took all the fun out of figuring out who's really up to what when we knew almost from the get-go that Ben was forced to con Alice and his feelings for her are real. The show could have scored a much bigger and more satisfying payoff by keeping the characters (and the audience) guessing about the relationship and how it plays into their present situations. It also came as no big shock that taking down the syndicate Ben works for would be the endgame of one of his cohorts all along in order for that person to take over. I was almost desperate for a ridiculous plot twist -- like Alice is really working for Ben's team, or the FBI agent is the mysterious benefactor that the syndicate keeps alluding to -- just to prove that the writers weren't settling for safe and ordinary. Viewers will only make a true, long-term commitment to this kind of show if they can't see all of the turns in the road ahead.

Unless the series plans to do shorter, cable-length seasons for the rest of its run, "The Catch" has written itself into its very own catch-22. On its current trajectory, it can't possibly continue for much longer. Knowing broadcast network politics, the show won't start adopting a grittier tone now for fear of losing the viewers it has, but it'll also have a hard time attracting new viewers with such lazy, transparent storytelling. Shows involving heists and capers require a certain level of cat-and-mouse intrigue to maintain their mystery and suspense. As it stands, "The Catch" is too mousy, and it needs to start roaring.