TV Recap: Deception

lauren stern was deceived that this NBC show was any good…

Plot: A San Francisco detective (Meagan Good) goes undercover to investigate the death of her childhood best friend.

When I first saw the previews of NBC’s new crime drama Deception, I actually thought this might be a good show. The show has an impeccable cast (aka Meagan Good, Tate Donovan, and Victor Garbor) and what seemed like an interesting plot. But after sitting through the last painful hour, I realized that not everything isn’t as always as great as it seems.

My first and main problem with Deception is that it has no development. This is supposed to be a pilot but there was no plot or character development. It was just a girl having flashbacks of her friend and then fighting with the girl’s family over the death of said girl. In fact, I didn’t even know the dead girl’s name was Oliva until about a half an hour into the episode. The whole episode was just rushed and at some points really confusing.

My second problem with the show is that it is one boring hour long snorefest. There wasn’t one moment during this episode were I had my eyes peeled to the tube. When I tried to pay attention for the sake of this review, I found the script itself to be corny and dry of emotion. There was nothing at all that left me wanting more. In fact, for a while I kept myself busy by imagining the different ways producers of Law and Order: SVU could take this storyline and make it so much better. Believe me, there were hundreds of ways. I counted.

Lastly, everything about this pilot was cliché about a crime drama. From the crying to the yelling to the jargon – it was all seen before on practically any crime drama on the air right now. Yes, the plot hasn’t technically been done for a series but there’s got to be at least one NCIS or Law and Order episode about a homicide involving a rich family. It’s nothing new and certainly not worth spending an hour every week watching.

For these reasons, I expect Deception to be on the list of shows that fail this season. There are better shows to watch on Monday nights. Even watching the ladies of the Real Housewives or the young adolescent mothers on Teen Mom 2 is more entertaining than this.