We often root for the bad guys on TV.
In Fox’s breakout hit, “Prison Break,” eager viewers sit and watch and wait and hope for our beloved convicts to pull off their grand caper.
And who doesn’t secretly want to be Tony Soprano?
It’s safe to assume the same won’t be said about Showtime’s new hourlong drama, “Sleeper Cell.”
It’s about a band of terrorists living quietly in Los Angeles while planning a large-scale biochemical attack in the city.
The season begins at 10 p.m. Sunday on Showtime. In an interesting bit of scheduling, the entire 10-hour season will play out in just two weeks.
New episodes will air at 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday for two weeks, with a two-hour finale on Dec. 18.
Despite its recent impressive efforts, Showtime still plays second fiddle to big brother HBO.
Showtime is still the Nicky Hilton to HBO’s Paris.
The Eli Manning to HBO’s Peyton.
The Mary-Kate Olsen to HBO’s Ashley.
OK, I can’t tell those two apart, either.
The point is, Showtime still has a way to go in reaching the standard that HBO has set, even in light of HBO’s recent identity crisis.
Showtime hit the mark with critical hits such as “Huff,” “Weeds” and “The L Word” in the past couple of years. And every time it takes a swing as big as “Sleeper Cell,” I can’t help but think this could be the one that pushes the channel to the next level.
It won’t.
“Sleeper Cell” is timely, relevant and wildly intriguing on its face.
But it never wakes up.
It’s just interesting enough to make you curious about what happens next, but won’t have you asking friends if they taped an episode that you missed.
The second-biggest problem is that it doesn’t show us enough that we don’t already think we know, and that’s exactly what we’re looking for in a show that claims to take us inside the workings of an active terrorist cell.
Its biggest problem is that it can’t get out of its own way.
It starts with the casting, which called for an almost literal rainbow of terrorist profiles, an obvious effort to show us that not all terrorists are who we think they are.
You’ve got the Arab ringleader; a Bosnian seeking revenge for the killing of his family by Orthodox Serbs; a French guy; a blond, blue-eyed American guy; and a black Muslim fresh out of prison.
One of them is an undercover FBI agent. (Hint: It’d be too obvious if it was the blond guy, so guess again. The answer is to come.)
All these fellows live perfectly ordinary lives.
The leader of the group, Faris Al-Farik, poses as a Jewish man and coaches a Jewish Little League baseball team. Israeli-born actor Oded Fehr, who plays Al-Farik, gives the show’s strongest performance.
The Frenchman drives a Hollywood tour bus, the all-American kid works at a bowling alley and the Bosnian man is a high school math teacher.
That leaves ex-con Darwyn Al-Hakim, who is the mole, an FBI special agent who is reporting back to the bureau.
The catch here is that Al-Hakim is a devout Muslim, setting up those inevitable preachy moments, such as one particular exchange with his boss, Agent Ray Fuller.
Fuller cynically talks about an imam who practices “true Islam, whatever that is.”
“Ray, that is my religion. OK?” Al-Hakim replies.
“Sorry,” Fuller says.
Intense.
Ultimately, “Sleeper Cell” fails to hit where it should, stumbles too slowly through too many cliches to make it as interesting as it ought to be and serves mostly as a reminder of how much we miss and are looking forward to the next season of “24.”
Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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