There were two reasons why "Intelligence" caught my eye: First, I was a fan of lead actor Josh Holloway on LOST. Second, I was intrigued by the concept of a man being "plugged in" to the Internet at all times. However, while the acting on "Intelligence" is quite solid and the underlying concept is indeed interesting, the show is set up to be little more than a case-of-the-week action slugfest.
For the basic premise, "Intelligence" revolves around "Project Clockwork" of the American future's Cyber-Terrorism center. Gabriel (Holloway) has had a chip implanted in his brain that allows him to be connected to the information grid at all times. An unforeseen aspect of the experiment, however, is that Gabriel is also able to extrapolate on the data, making him a useful tool at crime scenes. Created by Dr. Cassidy (John Billingsley), overseen by Lillian Strand (Marge Helgenberger), and partnered with Riley Neal (Meghan Ory), Gabriel is called upon each week to help solve another seemingly impossibly, usually politically-oriented case.
To be frank, I am not a huge fan of "case of the week" shows. Basically, I have become spoiled by the storytelling conventions of shows like "LOST", "Homeland", and "Mad Men", for example, where plots and characters are continued for episodes or seasons. "Intelligence" is not that type of show. Besides its "Pilot" and maybe a little bit into the second episode, it becomes little more than a new case for Gabriel and Riley to solve each week. Some viewers are perfectly fine with that type of storytelling, but I tend to get antsy (the only week-by-week show that could ever hold my interest was "The X-Files").
Another part of the problem is that the show's advertising on CBS was very misleading. While watching the trailers and viewing other promotional materials, it looked like a show about a guy trying to find his missing wife (and using the chip in his head to do it). Well, that plot line was essentially dropped (though perhaps not for good) after the second episode, with all the rest (at least to episode 7 after which I stopped watching) focusing on a "plot of the week".
Thus, I made the decision to drop "Intelligence" from my weekly viewing slate. Though Holloway is superb as the leading man (in fact, I wish them would let him emote even more, but too often he's just quipping tough and running around) and the "Internet brain chip" concept is enticing, there just isn't enough here to sustain my interest week-to-week.
