Intelligence (2013)

The good thing about procedurals is you can come and go and not miss much. The bad thing about procedurals is you can come and go and not miss much. Holloway, though, should be enough to keep you coming back.

Breathlessly paced and festooned with some pretty groovy computer graphics--the chip allows Holloway to walk through scenes of past destruction in his mind--Intelligence isn't trying to be anything more than what it obviously is. The show is a panoply of familiar elements anchored by a new and attractive leading man.

A proficient if initially perfunctory action thriller that benefits immeasurably from its star's gruff, bluff machismo.

There are nice moments, especially from Holloway, whose quips are vastly more clever than the rest of the show.

The show's special effects are relatively decent, especially when Gabriel activates his chip and can re-create events as his own personal hologram. But the stock prickly relationship between Gabriel and Riley, which will undoubtedly lead to trust and maybe something more, is tiresome as soon as it begins.

The action sequences that ensue are intriguing enough. The trouble is that the show doesn't trust the viewer's capacity to infer. Nor does it tolerate the slightest ambiguity. Thus we get long, dull passages of dialogue.

Networks want their shows to look like movies these days, but the Intelligence pilot makes the border of Pakistan and Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., both look like Vancouver, where the pilot was filmed. It's a minor but telling detail in this unimaginative rehash.