Critic Reviews

Holloway looks leaner than his Sawyer days and cleans up nice. Ory, such a spitfire on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” as both Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, seems tamed here, and unfortunately, a little dull.

Intelligence is nicely done. [20 Jan 2014]

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.

For all the talk about tech, nothing here reinvents the wheel, but the action is crisp and the dialogue breezy.

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.

Cast, concept, execution--there's a lot to root for in Intelligence. But they'll be pushing a big rock up the hill week after week.

The pilot sets up some promising intrigue but plays like the lowest-common-denominator version of itself: muscular action, a cutout Chinese villain, a rote twist, lots of Josh. Get smarter, please. [10 Jan 2013, p.66]

Intelligence may not be the most exciting show the new year will bring, but it is the kind of weekly adventure/mystery CBS does well--one that tells you what it is up front and is smart enough to deliver on most of what it promises.

The producers provide plenty of action, much of it triggered by the understandable fact that every enemy on Earth would like to get hold of Gabriel’s microchip, or find one of his own. In keeping with CBS’ tradition of action procedurals, Intelligence will solve cases of the week as well as grapple with longer-term dramas.

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