A Review of ABC's Deception

Here are my two-bits on the just concluded ABC’s Deception. I may have to warn you, Spoilers ahead.

Deception a relatively new TV series aired on the 11th of March 2018 and had its season finale on 27th of May 2018, spanning over 13 episodes.

This series revolves around the character of Jack Cutmore-Scott, who plays Cameron Black, a famous Magician based in the US, whose acts is all about make illusions and passing it off as magic to his audience and fans. Very early in the series, we see his career hit the rocks when he was faced with a huge scandal, involving his twin brother, Jonathan, whom no one ever knew about, who was involved in a car crash that resulted to the death of a lady. The events that transpired in the accident reveals that it was actually a set up and this makes Cameron Black try everything in his power, legally, to free his twin brother, which meant he had to join the FBI as a civilian consultant.

Deception comes from a very long list of crime fighting procedural Tv series that involves civilians consultants helping out law enforcement in solving crimes due to their “special ability” or insight to a particular series of crimes. Coming from someone who has watched several TV Series in this category, which include The Mentalist, Perception, Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, iZombie, and quite recently, Instinct just to name a few, I was initially thrilled to see how magic can help in the solving of crimes but in the long run Deception didn’t really provide a different a “wow-effect” to its story line compared to shows that have aired before it. Mark Zoller Seitz of Vulture had this to say about the show

"Unfortunately, Deception is a show about the magic of illusion that has a great deal of difficulty being, y’know, magical."

To be fair, the first two episodes, actually captured my attention, as it had a surprise twist to it. In the first episode we are treated to a “legend-bolstering stunt” by Cameron Black when he tried escaping from a straitjacket while hanging upside down over a bed of swords that point upwards as the chains that held him aloft were slowly burning by a blowtorch. As things seemed to be going wrong with the act, he crashes into a mirror and then disappears, only to appear in a different city from a viewing screen. Mind blowing isn’t it? And then it was revealed that it was his twin, Jonathan, who appeared there, while Cameron never left the stage. After which see the scene where Jonathan was framed in an accident which was orchestrated by a “Mystery two coloured eye lady”. Next we see Cameron Black revealing to the FBI that the plane that was transporting a notorious criminal which was blown in an airport hangar was all an illusion and done by a master illusionist who was responsible for brother incarceration. This served as a ticket for Cameron to join the FBI team a civilian consultant to help solve similar cases and use the opportunity to vindicate his twin brother by catching this illusionist.

As I mentioned earlier, no one knew about his twin brother, not even his ex-girlfriend, except for his 3 main crew. We get to find out that this was all their father’s doing, as from a tender age, they have been involved in disappearing acts and Jonathan has been hiding from the world views in other to maintain their secret act.

During the course of this show, we are introduced to several mysteries like, who is the “Mystery multi-colored eye” woman that framed Jonathan Black, was their father a great magician or the greatest thief ever, what was their grandfather’s role in a secret organization full of rich folks.

So where did it go wrong? For me, most episodes where Cameron Black was called to help solve the crime, didn’t have any element of surprise because we knew his tricks and what he was going to do, since he explains everything just before they happen, so we aren’t thrilled but just following along to see the plan getting executed.

Inkoo Kang of Variety had this to say about the show,

“it feels like the exact opposite of a successful trick: Nearly every turn is telegraphed early and often……the whodunits in Deception are so foreseeable….that they seem designed to reward the predictions of even the most naive members of the audience.”

While the show had its little wow moment, it never really did turn enough heads, no wonder it was cancelled by ABC and not renewed for a second season…opps I did tell you, spoilers ahead

My overall rating for the show is a 6.5/10

Femi Erinle

Series Lover, Manga Reader and a DC fan