Covert Affairs Season One   Starring: Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham, Kari Matchett, Anne Dudek, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Peter Gallagher Universal Playback RRP: £29.99 8289410 Certificate: 12 Available 18 June 2012

Being a federal agent isn’t easy as Annie Walker is about to find out. Annie is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative and is propelled into a shadowy world full of cons, killers and international crime rings when she begins working on a case lead by Arthur Campbell, who heads up the agencies most secretive department. While it appears that she has been plucked from obscurity for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be something, or someone, from her past that her CIA bosses are really after...

Covert Affairs follows CIA trainee, Annie Walker (Piper Perab), as she's moved up the ladder and shoved straight into the field before her basic training is completed. Her ability to speak several languages appears to be the reason why she's brought on board for her first mission, but it soon becomes evident that something much more sinister is going on.

There is an ongoing back story involving Walker's brief romantic fling with a mysterious man - who is obviously also a spy of some sort. The story line is picked up every few episodes - being finally resolved by the end of this first season.

The actual mission of the week style stories play second fiddle to Walker's relationships with her co-workers (most notably the blind military intelligence officer August "Auggie" Anderson, played by Christopher Gorham) and sister (Danielle Brooks played by Anne Dudek).

Perab is perfect in the role of Walker. She has a look of Julia Roberts/Angelina Jolie about her, and her acting, like the rest of the cast, can't be faulted. What can be faulted are the scripts, which felt a little lacking in places. In fact the show felt a little shallow, a little cliched and a little too old fashioned than it should have. I was surprised to discover that a second season had been commissioned to be honest.

There's the odd interesting touch - for example it's quickly explained why there are so many young staff in the CIA. Apparently a recruitment freeze that had been initiated was lifted after 9/11.

Extras include Deleted Scenes; Gag Reel (2 min, 15 sec); Blind Insight (3 min, 55 sec look at the character of August "Auggie" Anderson); Set Tour (13 min, 50 sec with actor Sendhil Ramamurthy and co-creator/co-writer Matt Corman); and audio commentaries.

While, on the whole, this is an enjoyable show, it's one I wouldn't switch off it were on the television, but it's not one I'd want to own and rewatch on DVD.

6

Nick Smithson