Written by Marley Ghizzone
Pilot Plot Summary:
Hoping to escape his demons, FBI Agent Peter Connelly (Jason Isaacs) takes a job in Jerusalem tracking down a wanted killer. However, things go awry when he begins a separate investigation into the death of a young archaeologist.
I can’t lie. I gagged. I gagged super hard about 30 seconds into the show. The birth of the baby calf was just too much to handle. But that’s besides the point, I guess. I am not sure how I feel about this first episode. On the one hand I love a good conspiracy come true. On the other hand, I don’t appreciate weird relations with dead daughter look-a-likes.
Besides the aforementioned baby calf incident, there were a few issues with the pilot episode of Dig. The most glaring problem was the holy water pool scene. Peter Connelly (Isaacs) first sees bright-haired Emma (Alison Sudol) as he is running through the streets and back alleys of Jerusalem chasing wanted killer Yussef Khalid (Omar Metwally.) I knew immediately that she reminded him of his dead daughter. I felt it in my bones, so when she strips down naked and jumps into the holy pool with him watching, I was weirded out to say the least. But to make matters worse, he then also gets completely butt naked! And jumps into the water! So it isn’t a huge surprise when she kisses him. At this point, I am assuming I got the vibes wrong. But no, no I didn’t. When Emma (Sudol) turns up dead the next day Lynn Monahan (Anne Heche), Connelly’s (Isaac) superior apologizes for ambushing him with the pictures of Emma because she recognizes that they look so similar to his dead daughter.
In what universe would you feel comfortable watching an adult woman who looks like your dead daughter swim around naked and then join her equally as naked? I’m sorry to have ranted so long on this one point but it has me completely flummoxed.
The other issues I had are much smaller. During the chase scenes the camera was crazy shaky. It went overboard with “authenticity.” My other problem was the amount of times they had Connelly (Isaacs) walking into or out of focus. The extreme and near constant blurriness was disconcerting.
Now, with my rants out of the way let’s talk about what I liked about the show. The most interesting storyline is in New Mexico. I hope that there is more time devoted to that particular cog in this very intricate conspiracy. The relationship, though short, between Josh (Zen McGrath) and Debbie (Lauren Ambrose) is one I wish I could see more of. They brought the most compelling and much needed emotional element to the show.
I am definitely reserved in my judgemental of the series as a whole but interested to continue. I won’t fake the front and tell you I know what’s going on or even what the next episode holds but I am excited to find out.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Dig airs every Thursday on USA.
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