King & Maxwell is welcome escapism
For all its high-tech trappings — the modern-day Washington, D.C., setting, the all-seeing CCTV cameras, the pilot episode’s fixation on invasive surveillance techniques — King & Maxwell is a throwback to the him-and-her PI shows of yesteryear.
Based on its opening hour, King & Maxwell looks, sounds and feels like a simpler, easier-to-follow version of Person of Interest, the third-year crime drama about a former CIA agent recruited by a reclusive billionaire to help stop crimes before they happen. After a while, though, its true colours begin to show. King & Maxwell is closer in style and tone to McMillan & Wife, a lighthearted dramedy from the 1970s.
King & Maxwell, filmed this past spring in B.C., with Vancouver’s downtown core filling in for the U.S. capital, features Jon Tenney as Sean King, a disgraced ex-secret service agent now running a private-detective agency with his partner, Michelle Maxwell. Maxwell, played by Rebecca Romijn, is also an ex-federal agent. In her case, she was terminated after the person she was assigned to protect was kidnapped under her nose.
The setup is clear from the start. King and Maxwell are likable, attractive, would-be heroes trying to make up for past mistakes. They are honest, decent people, easy to root for because, well, anyone can make mistakes. The opening episode finds the pair on the case of a lawyer friend of King’s found dead after he represents an Edward Snowden-like hacker who’s allegedly spilled sensitive government secrets.
It helps that Tenney and Romijn have a natural chemistry, and it’s obvious from the opening chase scene — in which a fugitive commandeers a bus while disguised in a beaver costume — that nothing about King & Maxwell is going to be too edgy or threatening. King & Maxwell makes for fine, forgettable late-summer fare. It’s escapist entertainment, that doesn’t give escapism a bad name. These days, that counts for a lot. (10 p.m., Showcase)
The original surveillance thriller Person of Interest features a repeat from November, Til Death, in which Finch (Michael Emerson) and Reese (Jim Caviezel) fear for the safety of a, presumably, presumed innocent husband and wife who’ve been targeted for assassination. (10 p.m., CBS)
Longtime NCIS watchers who can’t get enough of one of TV’s longest-running, most avidly followed caper shows will be glued to the set for Tuesday’s repeat from April, in no small part because the story revolves around special agent Ziva (Cote de Pablo) as she tracks a lead to Germany following the murder of a Mossad agent at navy headquarters in Virginia. Pablo has left the series under controversial, acrimonious circumstances — read: money — and fans of Agent Ziva are mightily annoyed. NCIS returns for its 11th season on Sept. 24, but without Pablo. (8 p.m., CBS, Global)
Rick Mercer shares past summer vacation memories in a Rick Mercer Report repeat from earlier in the year, as he journeys to Sable Island, N.S., to ride with the wild horses there, followed by a training session with Canada’s national cricket team. It might not be The Ashes, but it’ll have to do. (8 p.m., CBC)