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Director Strand: You think protecting the President is more important.

Riley: Respectfully, Ma'am, it is more important.
Director Strand: Funny, he didn't think so.
Riley: I did it to protect you. Not the chip. You.
Riley: We're defined by the decisions we make, right?
Dr. Cassidy: Technology is not revolutionary. It's evolutionary. I like that.

INTELLIGENCE is a dramatic thriller starring Josh Holloway as a high-tech intelligence
operative enhanced with a super-computer microchip in his brain. With this implant,
Gabriel is the first human ever to be connected directly into the global information grid
and have complete access to Internet, WiFi, telephone and satellite data. He can hack into
any data center and access key intel in the fight to protect the United States from its
enemies. Leading the elite government cyber-security agency created to support him is
Director Lillian Strand, a straightforward and efficient boss who oversees the unit's
missions. Strand assigns Riley Neal, a Secret Service agent, to protect Gabriel from outside
threats, as well as from his appetite for reckless, unpredictable behavior and disregard for
protocol. Also on the team is Chris Jameson, a resourceful federal investigator. The brains
behind the design of the chip is Dr. Shenendoah Cassidy, whose son, Nelson, is jealous of
Gabriel's prominent place in his father's life. As the first supercomputer with a beating
heart, Gabriel is the most valuable piece of technology the country has ever created and is
the U.S.'s secret weapon. - CBS
INTELLIGENCE (CBS) REVIEW & TV PREVIEW
1-25-2014
1-25-2014 - Written By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts Journalist/Film Reviewer
FuTurXTV & HHBMedia.com - David Velo Stewart Editor HHBMedia.com - $$
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart
2

I thinks the prerequisite for a TV show called Intelligence should actually have writing,
acting, production design, direction and storylines that actually is intelligent. My basic
problem with watching CBS drama shows lately is that they are either massive-well
hyped hits like Person of Interest, Sherlock Holmes or Hawaii Five-0 or they are
massive over-hyped flops like J ersey Girl, The Golden Boy or Vegas. After watching
the first three episodes of CBSs new #1 show Intelligence I have to say that it started
off as a sure hit and now I can safely say it is teetering on edge of Jumping the Shark.

My first impression with seeing Josh Holloway playing Gabriel Vaughn, who is a new
breed of hybrid cyber-solider. I would like to say he is a gateway to people being turned
into cyborgs, but the show is not really like a Syfy Network sci-fi. I will say that CBS
made a wise choice because Josh was one of my favorite characters on Lost. CBS
then pulled Marge Helgenberger off of CSI to give the show someone that CBS viewers
know, trust and like to stabilize the cast. Marge plays Lilllian Strand. They then grabbed
a TV newbie with Canadian actress Meghan Orby to play Riley Neal, Gabriels body
guard or billion dollar babysitter. Megan was last seen playing Ruby/Red Riding Hood
on ABCs One Upon A Time. And rounding out Intelligences main cast are Gabriels
cyber-chip inventor and monitor Dr. Shenandoah Cassidy played by veteran actor John
Billingsley and newcomer P J. Bynne who plays Johns nerdy and wise-cracking son
Nelson Cassidy. The only person of color with significance other than Gabriels Indian
wife Amelian Vaughn (Zuleikha Robinson) is Lance Reddick from Fringe. Right now I
see Lances character DCI Jeffrey Tetazoo as more of a hindrance or skeptic of the
Cyber-Squad mission and Gabriels effectiveness as a true intelligence asset. Hopefully,
Lances role will change and he will become more involved in the shows stories. But for
now I view Lance like Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) on The Blacklist, which is a smart,
articulate, well dressed brotha overseeing a massive secret government operation that
does not really need their input or presence to get their covert missions accomplished.

David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart
3

Okay, so my main beef with Intelligence is that it has managed to be quite stupid and
predictable in its first three episodes that I dont think it will be able to recover and get
renewed for a second season. First, the show wants you to believe that the government
created a multi-billion highly classified tech program on the whim that there are special
human beings with a special gene that allows them to be connected to a cyber-chip to
access and hack the Internet, satellites, closed-circuit cameras, smartphones, security
systems, computers and practically any digital device. It should not be lost on anyone
that we already had a successful cyber-upgraded human TV series with NBCs Chuck.
And Intelligence never fully explains how our government discovered the new gene
that allows us to be pre-cyborbs. We kinda have to just trust them and the nerdy spy
tech that it is based on will come later. The pilot episode is really baffling because the
Chinese kidnap Dr. Cassidy because he created a duplicate and more complex cyber-
chip after he was kicked off the Intelligence team for no other reason except to allow
him to be outside the program, so he could be kidnapped by a rival foreign power. And
then the Chinese suddenly discover that they also have secret agent Mei Chen that has
the same cyber-gene as Gabriel. I have no idea how their government screened millions
of people to find this cyber-gene or were they only looking for the gene that conveniently
appears only so far to be only in special ops and spy trained humans. Either way we get
Cassidy back at the end of the pilot episode and now he and his son are back in the fold
running tech for Gabriels missions as if they never left. We move to the second episode
called Red X where Gabriel is obsessed with using his new cyber-powered brain to
find what happened to his deep-cover CIA wife, who is now in New York working with a
low budget Al-Qaeda-like terror cell. There is so little dialogue or clear back story about
Gabriels wife or her supposed classified CIA mission that by the end of the Red X
episode, when she blows herself up, we have no real idea why she would become a
suicide bomber, betray her country and be willing to kill her husband Gabriel. The third
episode Mei Chen Returns is an Edwin Snowden inspired story where a jaded female
CIA analyst steals the data about the cyber-gene program. The analyst is so upset with
the way America is abusing its technology to spy on its citizens that she runs to the
freedom loving Chinese to sellout, sabotage and setback our spy operations. But Mei
Chen wants the data to recreate an army of cyber-powered beings. I thought this cyber-
gene is so damn rare? What if only has Gabriel, Mei Chen and the comedian Carrot Top
has this rare cyber-gene? Maybe Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian have it
as well. Anyway, the only real reason that the Intelligence writers had the greedy CIA
analyst go to the Chinese embassy instead of the Russian embassy is Mei Chen would
have no way of easily sneaking in as a Chinese embassy worker she just happened to
look like. And the shows writers got even lazier when Gabriel tracks down who ordered
the most KFC at a London hotel to track down Mei Chens cyber handler. And Gabriels
ability to visualize 3D renderings to solve his cases is no more special than what one
can see get solved on Sherlock Holmes, CSI or Person of Interest. Intelligences
plots are too simple or dumb at times to be believed, so I gotta give it a TV review of $$.
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart