Chase [NBC, Mondays, 10/9C] certainly lives up to its name. The premiere opens with two U.S. Marshals chasing a fugitive – through a herd of cattle being driven through a downtown area as part of a state fair, through an arena and, finally, down a tunnel that splits into two paths. He ambushes the female Marshal and is trying to choke her out. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to play with guns?” he asks. She turns the tables on him and chokes him out, instead. “My mother died when I was I eight,” she says to the unconscious man, “so, no.”
The chase takes up an easy two-thirds of the teaser, but it’s the last third that sets up the story. A couple arrive home from an evening out and are confronted by a home invader who forced them to open their safe and shoots them and their daughter.
In their office, we meet the female Marshal, Annie Frost [Kelly Giddish], her partner, Jimmy Godfrey [Cole Hauser] – and the rest of her team: Marco Martinez [Amaury Nolasco] and Daisy Ogbaa [Rose Rollins]. They are soon saddled with a new deputy, Luke Watson [Jesse Metcalfe], as a tag-along.
Things go from bad to worse when, on top of the eager beaver deputy, they learn that Mason Boyle [a Fifteen Most Wanted fugitive] is in town and has shot three people in a home invasion robbery. The rest of the ep is, essentially, the team chasing Boyle.
There are no fresh insights into how Marshals go about their business – or how any form of police organization [local or federal] does. The best line is the above quote from the teaser, and, despite their earnest performances, none of the core cast have any particularly interesting characters. The only character with any depth at all [and that’s not saying much] is Boyle, but I can’t even give the actor credit because the screener that was furnished for this review had no opening credits.
The best thing about Chase is the chases – which makes sense, really. It’s just too bad that the bits in between don’t match their energy and fun. The script was written by Jennifer Johnson and directed by David Nutter [thank you, internet]. Nutter makes the most of the action sequences but even he can’t really do much with the rest.
It looks like Giddish [who starred in the horrendous Past Life] is 0 for 2.
Final Grade: D+