Matador

The show is a compendium of high-octane clichés, just clever enough that you can't call it stupid and just stupid enough that you can't call it clever.... There are three saving graces. One is the premise, which is enjoyably ludicrous.... The second saving grace is the multicultural cast and international flavor.... The third saving grace, certainly not to be underestimated, is Luna, who's got a marvelous Everyman quality.

The flavor is high-style retro-modern, high-style B-picture.

Glitzy, spoofy, and bristling with attitude, Matador is the modern equivalent of I Spy, the classic '60s series about a pro tennis player/secret agent, starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby.

Matador isn't a comedy, but it has its moments of levity, which is smart--the show shouldn't take itself too seriously, and those very Rodriguez (who directed the pilot) touches of sudden jump cuts and cartoonish violence work perfectly with the overall aesthetic.

A fun, entertaining action show.

Matador is definitely B-level--serviceable dialogue, not-quite-cartoonish characters, gimmicky editing--but it’s not grindhouse.

Matador has the potential to be really fun, once the place-setting of the first episode is out of the way. But the show won’t unlock that potential unless it fully buys into how ridiculous it can truly be.

Matador is fairly jaunty and breezy in the only episode sent for review. But it also throws in some serious-minded violence as part of the mix.