CONDOR

           

  Condor: A Tvshow With Untapped Potentials.
A low-level CIA employee returns from lunch to discover that everyone in his office has been killed; on the run, he goes on to pursue the truth about who is behind the murders while continuing to dodge the hitmen who are after him.
   Based on the acclaimed book "Six Days of the Condor" , the TV show was one with huge potentials, potentials which we are sad to say never really materialised. The pacing of the entire show was uneven, the tone a little jagged and rough around the edges, and poorly scripted.
   The plot of the show is nothing out of the ordinary, what they really had going for them was the conflict. The conflict on its own is exceptional and not commonplace, and we would have expected that with such a conflict that allows for so much room to meander and be creative, the production unit would have taken initiative and done something unpredictable.
  While we are inclined to agree that it is a show based off a book, we are still of the opinion that series creators in the past and in the present have been able to fine tune some book adaptations to meet the demands of the audience of today. Barring the admission that the conflict is quite strong, it is one that ought to have been developed over the course of 5 to 6 episodes, this would maybe have allowed for the creative team to fiddle with the general plot theme element without necessarily contradicting the work upon which it is based.    We will for the purpose of clarity explain further at the risk of Spoilers!  Having established the presence of some radical elements within the CIA, the next line of action ought reasonably to have been the motivation for the radicalisation, for it would be a grotesque representation of hope to seek to convince the demands of the audience of today with shallow back stories of a CIA asset and hope that it'd fly. Moreover that is an asset, how about the senior members of the Agency? The office of the DCIA, DDI and The station chiefs? They must all have had motivations for radicalising, these are men of integrity, who have made it to the agency by reason of their unwavering commitment to the cause of the Nation. It therefore came out as shallow that they would all make an about face and radicalised for no just cause.    This above and the uncanny way the show runners chose to portray the lead made the series come off as uncertain, uneven and a tad confusing. The decision to give the lead some close shaves without really being in any danger was at best hilarious, the manner In which the conspiracy was unveiled was anti-climactic.
   The acting on its own was nothing short of average. We couldn't pick one of the cast and say this here guy was brilliant at his role, It was all flatline acting, and average performances. This, we are sure won't be winning any of them any awards anytime soon, that is unless the network decides to make an award for its own shows. We could at least graciously commend the acting of Leem Lubany and Brendan Fraser for the astonishing amount of effort put into their transformations. Their on screen portrayal of character was near perfect and would have done a whole lot of good to the overall rating of the movie, if only they had more screen time. We are however indifferent towards the acting of Max Irons, Catherine Cunningham, Mira Sorvino, Kristen Hager and William Hurt.
  A show with its occasional thrills and frills, it's capable of keeping you interested with its early goings, but suffers from over exhaustion of the conflict theme without much in the way of creativity and additional content. Most often than not, you see script writing teams making adjustments on the fly as the season progresses and we have found that this is more enjoyable as it takes into accord the general feel of the audience to the series and what may affect it.
   In all, you may want to pick this for the thrills and for the conspiratorial invitation. Other than that, it is one show that not catch my fancy for a 2nd season.
However the decision to leave Gabrielle alive means the show may be renewed with a little bit of creative freedom, the need for stick to content Originality having been exhausted. With a different show runner, this is a show with huge potentials.
Starring: Max Irons, Brendan Fraser, Leem Lubany, Catherine Cunningham, William Hurt, Mira Sorvino, Kristen Hager.
Created by:
Todd Katzburg
Jason Smilovic
Ken Robinson

Based on
Six Days of the Condor
by James Grady

  Recommended with an FCA AppR of 7.2/10.