Looking for magic? Forget ‘Deception’
Sometimes ABC looks at series creation as if it’s assembling Mr. Potato Head, especially when whipping up one of its dramatic potboilers like “Revenge,” “Conviction” and the latest, “Deception,” premiering Sunday, March 11. These shows may vary in quality — “Revenge” was sweet until it got tiresome — but they are assembled from the same box of time-tested pieces. And “Deception” feels not only time-tested, but timeworn.
“Deception” centers on a Vegas performer named Cameron Black ( Jack Cutmore-Scott) who becomes a consulting illusionist for the FBI. Cameron worms his way into the bureau because he’s trying to get his
brother exonerated for a murder he didn’t commit. Or something like that. There’s more to it, but for the sake of avoiding spoilers, not to mention revealing the kind of plot gimmick that only comes up in a writers’ room, I’ll leave it there.
Soon enough, Cameron assembles a team of illusionists to assist the bureau, including Jordan Monroe ( Justin Chon), Dina Clark (Lenora Crichlow) and Gunter Gastafsen (Vinnie Jones). The agent in charge of the unit, Deakins (Laila Robins) has no patience for a bunch of vaudeville performers mucking up her investigations, but Agent Kay Daniels (Ilfenesh Hadera) is more tolerant, once Black and his team begin actually solving cases.
It’s one thing to be a consulting psychic, as fans of “Psych” and “The Mentalist” already know. But it’s more of a stretch to be a consulting illusionist. Unless you can sub a murderer for a rabbit in a hat, there’s not as much you can do to assist law enforcement.
But the show’s writers, bless their hearts, are nothing if not, well, desperate, willing to push any boundary to try to make the show credible. A kid walks up to a man in the street and blasts his face with a squirt gun. The man collapses to the ground and dies. The FBI is convinced the kid intended to kill his victim, but Cameron determines that the kid is actually performing. Sure.
The series, created by Chris Fedak, almost overcomes its fatal credibility issues with likable performances by Hadera, Cutmore-Scott, Chon, Crichlow and Jones.
In essence, “Deception” borrows from its betters, “Psych” and “The Mentalist.” From the former, “Deception” borrows the notion that no one is really taking any of this very seriously. And from “The Mentalist,” it borrows the closest thing to Simon Baker available in Cutmore-Scott.
As for the show’s future, well, now you see it, now you probably don’t comes to mind.