The new series “Covert Affairs” (10 p.m., USA, TV-14) isn’t believable for a second. And it doesn’t have to try. For reasons never truly explained, fetching blonde Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) joins the CIA and aces every exam, test of physical ability and mental stress. She’s a natural asset and gorgeous to boot.
Could that be why she was plucked out of training and planted in a dangerous assignment before she had a chance to get her clothes dry-cleaned? In the ultra-sleek Langley, Va., headquarters, everyone has an agenda. And only half of them seem to be sleeping with Annie. Her best, or only, friend on the job is Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), a sightless Iraq war vet who effortlessly orients her to the job and provides a heavy dose of “blind leading the blind” metaphors.
Peter Gallagher and Kari Matchett play an estranged husband-and-wife team engaged in cat-and-mouse CIA games with the bad guys and with each other. And they may have their own motivations for moving Annie up the ranks.
Annie’s married sister (Anne Dudek) has no idea of her secret vocation. But she worries about her and is forever trying to set her up on dates. It’s just not natural that sis has never gotten over an island romance from a few years back, seen several times in gauzy flashbacks. We learn little about Annie in the pilot, save for her facility with six languages and about her very broken heart. Could these be the only reasons she has joined the “Company”?
Spy thrillers featuring stunning leads (“Alias” and “La Femme Nikita”) tend toward the baffling and convoluted. “Covert” is a tad less challenging. Think of it as a variation on “Legally Blonde,” where Reese Witherspoon becomes Jane Bond to get back at her boyfriend.