Reality
television has become so toxic, the idea of weaponizing it sort of makes sense.
However, the CIA has more of an exercise in soft power in mind. The plan is to
show how transparent we are at being covert and dirty. Thomas Devlin, “the
Swamp Fox,” is just the likable wet works operative to win back the trust of
the American people in Rob Gordon Bralver’s broad satire, Espionage Tonight (clip here), which had its world premiere at the 2017 Dances with Films.
Obviously,
the Swamp Fox will have to retire into witness protection with a new identity after
the first season, but that is just fine with him. He is not crazy about the new
focus-grouped “Swamp Fox” nick-name, but whatever. He will work reasonably well
with Sebastian Young, the field producer and cameraman. He also still trusts
his long-time handler, Sydney Greenstreet (let’s dearly hope they know they are
making a reference). However, showrunner Sam Jacobson and network marketing
liaison Elizabeth Geary are a different matter.
The
show is on regardless, both for Devlin and Amanda Artemova, the Russian actress
who will be playing French journalist Isabelle Fremaux, deliberately chosen for
her resemblance to the pretty Russian woman executed for helping Swampy during
his last mission. Like Devlin, she will also be improving. Supposedly, everyone
else is who they are presented to be, but we know better. In any event,
Mainland China is making a power play, proposing a transcontinental bullet
train through Colombia to compete with the Panama Canal (of course, they would
have to first permanently rout those pesky Communist terrorists first, but it
would still be bad from a sphere of influence perspective).
Granted,
spoofs are not typically what you would call narrative-driven, but the way ET careens from plot point to plot
point, you would think it was scripted during a Mad Libs party. It would be a
real challenge reverse engineering an outline from this movie. At least, there
was some colorful casting at the front end.
Frankly,
Joe Hursley is pretty good as the sad-eyed but still pretty crazy Devlin. He
and Greg Davis Jr. also wisely refrain from over-playing the subject-cameraman
buddy bromance. Lynn Whitfield has the right gravitas for Greenstreet, while
Alexie Gilmore is drolly catty as Geary. Unfortunately, Saïd Taghamaoui and
Chasty Ballesteros are grossly under-employed as the arms-dealing kingpin
Iskandar Yasin and his lover Fei Song, but they certainly are a photogenic
couple.
