Line #39 Series/Undercovers


1	[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/undercovers_9089.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:340: Also available for weddings and bar mitzvahs]]
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4	''Undercovers'' is a lighthearted espionage drama from Creator/JJAbrams and co-creator Josh Reims. It averted the NoughtiesDramaSeries formula of Abrams shows like ''Series/{{Alias}}'', ''Series/{{Lost}}'' and increasingly ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', concentrating on self-contained episodes.
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6	Steven and Samantha Bloom are a married couple operating a catering business in Los Angeles. They are also once-formidable agents with the Central Intelligence Agency. Through assistant director Carlton Shaw, they are re-enlisted to rescue—or capture—missing agent Leo Nash.
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8	The show was canceled midway through its first season.
9	----
10	!! ''Undercovers'' provides examples of the following:
11	%%* ActionGirl
12	* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Samantha's sister Lizzy who works at their catering company.
13	%%* AscendedFanboy: Hoyt.
14	%%* BattleCouple
15	* BoisterousBruiser: Leo Nash, at least according to Steven's description.
16	* BriefAccentImitation: Samantha frequently pretends to be English, using Mbatha-Raw's real accent.
17	* ChaseScene: Samantha decides to avoid drawing this out. Her car-stopper tool of choice? [[StuffBlowingUp A rocket launcher]].
18	* DeadpanSnarker:
19	** Director Shaw, who turns abusing sarcasm into an art form.
20	** Leo, especially when teasing Steven about his past relationship with Samantha.
21	* EvilCounterpart: In "Not Without My Daughter" Steven and Samantha run into a married couple of spies from the DSGE who are willing to hold a defecting North Korean physicist's daughter as collateral to secure an important piece of tech (and would have killed father and daughter both, as well, had they gotten what they wanted).
22	* {{Fanservice}}: This is an equal opportunity show; case in point, "Instructions" features a scene where Sam, Leo and Steven all strip down to change to blend in at a conference.
23	** Also "[[UnusualEuphemism sexpionage]]".
24	%%* HappilyMarried
25	* IdiosyncraticWipes: Setting changes are announced by postcards come to life, complete with a modern RegionalRiff.
26	* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Samantha was recruited while at Yale. TruthInTelevision, the CIA and other organizations tend to look for intelligent, highly-motivated recruits and Yale specifically has a long association with the agency.
27	* MagicalComputer
28	** Played straight and somewhat averted in the pilot. The leads recruit the services of a cryptographer to help decrypt computer files. He notes this will take at least six hours to do so. However, he also notes that he can find the computer the files were transferred from simply because he has the files and is able to do so right away. An analogy would be like copying a paragraph from a book to a sheet of paper and someone being able to tell you the specific copy as well as where that particular book is right now.
29	** "Devices" has the team lift fingerprints off a untreated glass using a cellphone with high enough resolution to get a single positive match.
30	* MinoredInAssKicking: Hoyt. At first you thing that Hoyt was just a techie, but he showed that he had game!
31	%%* MrFanservice: Unavoidable when your male lead is Boris Kodjoe.
32	* RecycledINSPACE: The show has been described as ''Series/HartToHart'' (or ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005'') [-WITH A BLACK COUPLE-]!
33	* RunningGag:
34	** Every episode has an ongoing fight between the Blooms, ranging from Samantha's "sexpionage" to Steven not-reading the directions for an espresso machine to reliance on technology.
35	** Shaw extremely reluctantly sending the Blooms on missions and hating the way they finish each other's sentences.
36	%%* SpyFiction: Martini flavored.
37	%%* StockScream: Used in the pilot.
38	* TelevisionGeography:
39	** In "Not Without My Daughter", there's no way the first scene takes place in North Korea - it's too well-lit. North Korea at night is [[http://doctorbulldog.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/northkorea-at-night.jpg a big black empty space above South Korea]], not to mention that in Pyongyang, there is a mandatory lighting reduction after 9 pm at night.
40	** Anybody who has been to Madrid once could write a long list of things that are plain wrong with the pilot, but those [[DecadeDissonance 1970s-looking posters]] advertising UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup with grammar mistakes and a chubby guy in a three-piece suit sporting a mustache straight from TheEdwardianEra [[note]]The lamest possible cameo Greg Grunberg could made in his career[[/note]] deserve an award. And just as we thought soccer was making inroads in the United States...
41	* TemptingFate: The minefield scene.
42	--> '''Russian:''' I assure you, This is safe procedure. Follow me. '''''BOOM!''''' \
43	(Later)\
44	'''Steven''': We're gonna follow the dry creekbed.\
45	'''Samantha:''' I'm not so sure that's such a good idea, honey.\
46	'''Steven''': Why not? Any mine would've rusted through by now.\
47	(Samantha tosses a rock. '''''BOOM!''''')\
48	'''Samantha:''' Actually, the Russians switched to plastic mines in 2001.

Context Series / Undercovers