Deception (2018)

Deception isn’t likely to win any awards, except perhaps from the Society of American Magicians. As escapist fare, though, it turns the trick, plays its cards well, pulls a rabbit from the hat, etc. Or as ABC might say, “Abracadabra, here’s to another Castle.”

Platinum-plated nonsense--but also self-aware enough to know just how nonsensical. Deception is mostly just a lot of fun.

The three procedural cases in the episodes I've seen are all decent and sometimes even clever, it's just that a formula sets in so quickly that a lot of dramatic tension is sapped. If every episode is going to have Cameron and his team doing a misdirected illusion to fool the bad guys and the audience is in on that inevitability, we never get to experience the pleasure of magic, which is the whole "being fooled by it" thing.

Deception is fairly charming in spite of its blah procedural trappings thanks to Mr. Cutmore-Scott and his character’s bag of tricks and magic team.

There’s no snap in the storytelling or the filmmaking, just scenes of people talking, talking, talking while the camera sometimes cuts to whatever they’re talking about. Cameron never stops explaining things to other characters, most of whom seem to be there to argue with him or ask follow-up questions so that he has an excuse to explain things some more.

Never rising above its hokey premise, the procedural is further sunk by transparent mysteries, hollow supporting characters, and a fatal lack of surprises. Ironically, it feels like the exact opposite of a successful trick: Nearly every turn is telegraphed early and often.