I know I wrote a negative review of The Enemy Within earlier but I went ahead and gave the 2nd episode a chance. I like the actress from Dexter and really wanted this show to work. It didn't improve and just clarified the problem I'm having with the show. I apologize in advance for the length but there's a lot of problems.
I think the #1 problem leading to all others is that they didn't have enough courage to write a despicable character and still have us love watching her. House MD would be a successful example where they wrote a really hateful character that no one would want to be around in real life. Yet, in spite of that, we loved the show.
The Enemy Within wants us to like the main character so they tried to fix their character's treasonous flaws by giving her the story line of protecting her child. The errors and missteps in character development keep snowballing from there which make me dislike all the characters. And, because I no longer like any of the characters, the other flaws in the show jump out at me. I might have forgiven the other flaws if the characters were likable.
Shepherd is supposed to be genius smart to the point of pulling a Sherlock and noticing things other people miss. But every decision around her child just ends up making her look really stupid. In the end I just wish they never wrote in a daughter at all because the vast majority of problems would disappear once the daughter is out of the picture.
Warning: From this point forward there might be spoilers.
Shepherd wouldn't tell people she was under duress to save her child. I already mentioned this as not making any sense to me. Her daughter only knows that her mother is a traitor and no one knows why. She hasn't been able to talk to her mother for 3 years and she had to move with her father and change schools. I think knowing her mother committed treason to save her life would be less painful for the daughter than the current situation. Plus I don't see how changing schools would make the bullying from other students any better. It was national news. There is literally nowhere they could go other than another country to get away from everyone thinking mom is a traitorous evil being.
The first conversation with her daughter was poorly written and acted. There wasn't any underlying tension from the daughter about what she really wanted to ask. It was all love and kisses and then a sudden switch to questioning why her mother committed treason and a round of I hate you. The agent working with Shepherd is abruptly switching back and forth between actively hating her and feeling sorry for her too. Add to the mix that Shepherd is crying all the time about her daughter. Then you add into the mix that another female agent is in love with Will (agent working with Shepherd) and she keeps mooning over him. I'm watching this show to see a mystery spy show. I don't want This is Us drama getting in the way.
The bad guy has moles and secret agents everywhere. In fact he has a history of using family members against his enemies. When Shepherd was in charge of investigating him she never had a protective detail around her family. Bad guy was able to threaten the daughter because having a normal life is apparently more important than protecting her life to begin with. Shepherd keeps saying she won't help with the investigation until they provide protection for her daughter yet she openly walks around with the agents and insists on accompanying them to investigation sites. She's the only that will know what they need to look for when she sees it. So all this time her daughter still isn't under protection and her life is still in danger.
The other show's flaws related to the bad guy with secret agents everywhere. They work in an open office and have vital evidence showing on a giant screen. Anyone walking by can take a photo and give the bad guy a heads up. In fact one of his moles did that exact thing. They also have people standing in public places yelling at the agent that he shouldn't be working with that traitorous Shepherd. See above regarding her daughter being in danger for helping with the investigation.
I promise it will be my last review because I have taken it out of my viewing queues. I just can't watch anymore with this show.
So having the entire world think her mother is a traitor and never being able to speak to her again is the better alternative to knowing her mother gave the names to save her life?
