Each fall, most of the broadcast and cable networks debut a ton of new shows in the span of a few months, making it difficult to sort out which ones to make time for and which to skip. So we’re starting the WIRED Pilot Program, where we highlight what you should continue watching, and what you can just let sit on your DVR until it automatically deletes. Today's entry: Good Behavior
The Show: Good Behavior (TNT, Tuesdays)
The Premise: Letty Dobesh (Michelle Dockery is an ex-con meth addict out on parole and struggling to stay clean in North Carolina. During a petty theft operation at a fancy hotel, she overhears a hitman named Javier (Juan Diego Botto) arranging to kill a man’s wife. She wrestles with whether to intervene with her overheard knowledge, and yearns to reunite with her young son, who lives in protective custody with her mother.
The Pilot Program Take: Good Behavior is based on a novella series by Blake Crouch, the author behind Fox's Twin Peaks-esque mystery series Wayward Pines. But instead of going for cliffhanger mystery, this is a southern-fried blend of Breaking Bad and Jack Reacher.
Letty is a product of a criminal justice system that skimps on rehabilitation and doesn’t provide resources to help parolees succeed on the outside. In the pilot's first scene, she endures misogyny from her boss at a diner, and from a lecherous customer who tries to assault her. But she’s also kind of like Jesse in the early seasons of Breaking Bad, prone to giving into her worst tendencies because she doesn’t believe she can do any better.
When she makes the ridiculous decision to get involved in Javier’s business by seducing him, she inserts herself into a life of crime far beyond what landed her in jail. She’s doing it for a rush, to feel what she used to feel as an addict. But once she attempts to rescue a woman she’s never met—and steals Javier’s money in the process—the terror becomes too much, causing her to throw it all away on meth after a failed attempt to see her son. Once Javier wriggles out of his predicament and comes to collect, it’s clear the series will continue by pairing Letty and Javier together, with Letty working off her debt by using her larceny and seduction skills to help Javier.
There are a few scenes—one centered on an eavesdropping scenario that seems impossible to escape—which display a knack for building tension. But there’s sadly little chemistry between Dockery and Botto. Considering that’s the most important character relationship on the show, it’s not a good sign. Nor is the rather sparse budget, which significantly limits the number of major characters in the pilot. If Letty and Javier only interact with a handful of other people each week, and there’s no attempt to build out any community around them because they’re criminals and need to stay under the radar, then it will be difficult to get invested in anyone.
The Verdict: This show feels like an ebook series that somehow made it to television instead of Amazon Kindles first.
TL;DR: Michelle Dockery deserves better than this cut-rate antihero melodrama.
