When NBC announced last spring that it was planning an updated version of* Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,* groans could be heard from skeptical couch potatoes nationwide.
Surprise: My Own Worst Enemy is actually pretty good. The show, which premieres Monday night, stars Christian Slater as a spy who gets his memory wiped after each mission and unknowingly assumes the identity of a nice, suburban family man (pictured above).
Enemy doesn't worry too much about how one man could simultaneously carry around someone else's life without knowing it. "We mediated a temporal lobe," explains a geek who plants fake memories into the agent's mind with each re-entry into civilian life.
(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)
The real fun comes from watching Slater's sly performance. Blending elements of Memento's "who the hell am I?" amnesia theme with the middle-class spy humor of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the actor presents a relatively subtle take on sexy killer Edward Albright, the agent who speaks 13 languages, drives a fast car and lives in a spartan loft stuffed with high-tech weaponry.
When a hiccup in the system makes Slater's two selves aware of each other, Edward suddenly has to navigate the wife-and-two-kids routine belonging to his alter ego, Henry Spivey. The vice versa scenario: Foreign thugs come after Mr. Nice Guy Henry in the wake of Edward's botched execution attempt.
Slater gets adequate support from Alfre Woodard as the hard-nose boss, willowy Brit Saffron Burrows (The Bank Job) as Henry's shrink and Mike O’Malley (Yes, Dear) as a salt-of-the-earth co-worker who doubles as a sadistic special-ops agent.
Director David Semel (Heroes and Life pilots) co-produces the show with creator Jason Smilovic, who also wrote the clever Lucky Number Sleven. Hitting prime time with an outrageous set-up handled with a light touch, *My Own Worst Enemy * succeeds, at least so far, as a split-personality drama that deserves undivided support.
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My Own Worst Enemy premieres Monday at 10 p.m. EST on NBC.
Wired: Breezy spy ride gains traction from Slater's cool charm.
Tired: Call the prop department: GPS devices and aluminum suitcases are getting old.
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Photo courtesy NBC
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