CIA

STREAM IT if you like FBI or are a big Tom Ellis fan; CIA should scratch the itch of both sets of viewers. If you’re looking for an interesting procedural, SKIP IT.

With his James Bond 1990 vibe, Colin is the partner one instinctively prefers, unless one has a natural liking for Eagle Scout types. .... The trick the good guys play to bring the bad to heel makes no real sense, only TV spy sense. But this is, after all, television, and “CIA” knows what some of us want, or will settle for, from our spies.

So far, “CIA” works well as an average New York City-set law-enforcement procedural. Perhaps that will be enough.

Not every show needs to be genre-pushing, thought-provoking art. But if you’re not going to make something new, you do at least need to make something quality. And an important part of quality is understanding the audience, moment, and subject matter. “CIA” does none of that.

It’s classic buddy cop stuff, a “Lethal Weapon” without the jokes, which is part of the problem. You can predict everything both Colin and Bill are going to say or do, and while both are credible actors with no shortage of charm, they’re bogged down by perfunctory writing.

The show is a frustrating waste of two actors I actually enjoy—Tom Ellis, who was magnetic as Lucifer, and Nick Gehlfuss, who carried plenty of tension as Dr. Halstead in Chicago Med. Instead of giving them anything sharp or stylish, this CIA series feels like a stitched‑together nothing‑burger: glossy on the surface, empty once you bite in. The main plot drifts from one recycled espionage beat to another, never building momentum, never earning any real payoff, and telegraphing every twist so far ahead that any suspense and interest have flatlined to zero.