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My Own Worst Enemy: Breakdown (series premiere)

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Christian Slater(S01E01) Watching My Own Worst Enemy is like deja vu. You feel like you've seen something like this before. Was it The Bourne Identity, Casino Royale, Minority Report, Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Or maybe it was something on TV, like that failed Ray Liotta series Smith or Jennifer Garner's Alias or The Bionic Woman or The Six Million Dollar Man or something else...

See, that's the problem with My Own Worst Enemy. It's familiar but not in a cool way. Rather it's derivative and not very compelling. NBC is already doing a double life, super secret spy thing much better in the ratings-challenged Chuck.

The obvious appeal of My Own Worst Enemy is two-fold: lots of action including cool gadgets, cars (thank you, GM), guns, blood and the mystery, combined with the charm and complexity of Christian Slater. Slater's a fun actor, a sort of Jack Nicholson only younger. I remember when he first started on Ryan's Hope! He's got something.

Unfortunately, this dual personality, Jekyll and Hyde performance doesn't work. Unlike the original Jekyll and Hyde, in which the two personalities in one body were good vs. evil, Edward and Henry in Enemy are opposites more in the peripherals than in the essence.

The strangest element in the piece is Henry's visits to the psychiatrist. If Mavis, his spy personality's handler, is in charge, why would she let Henry see a shrink to work out the questions in his head? If Raymond and Mavis and Tony are so exacting, why did they leave the matches in Edward's pocket?

There are loopholes in this pilot that are hard to comprehend, starting with the concept. Why would you want to create a split personality? Why create Henry at all if Edward is the man with the talent you (the secret organization) desires? Then there's the question of security; what would be the point of creating the Henry character, have him get married and have children, only to make them completely vulnerable because of his alter ego? In the opener, Uzi shows up at Henry's door and threatens to kill every member of his family. The Henry persona doesn't help Edward, so why was he created.

Other points of interest


-- The oddball casting of Mike O'Malley sort of works, although I keep expecting the guy from Yes, Dear, Anthony Clark, to turn up as his sidekick. On the other hard, Alfre Woodard as Mavis brings authority to her role which is definitely a Judi Dench variation from the Bond series.

-- Henry's discovering Edward's past reminded me of Jared's search for his parents on The Pretender. That was a much better show. (BTW, what's Michael T. Weiss up to these days?)

-- Major 'ick' factor when Edward came home to Henry's wife and ravaged her sexually. The morning after, she was deeply satisfied and Henry was completely ticked off at himself.

-- When they take Henry to the white room to erase his memories, the look was so like Willie Wonka, the original with Gene Wilder, not the Johnny Depp version!

-- Interesting twist in the plot comes with this line, "Edward and I can't meet but we can communicate." Hmm...does Mavis know that?

How do you rate the pilot?

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