StartUp

StartUp is trying to meld the high-finance sheen of series like “Billions” with the gee-whiz digital jargon of, say, “Scorpion,” but it never seems innovative, only imitative. The casting, however, is refreshing, even if the plot strains credulity.

The show’s sex and violence propel the story, but not quite to the speed necessary to occlude its problems. If you work extra hard to suspend disbelief, it’s modestly entertaining.

Nick, Ronald and Izzy--she’s the real brains behind GenCoin, although she’s poor and working out of her parents’ garage--are a highly unlikely collaborative trio. I didn’t buy their unity for a second.

StartUp takes its three leads--along with Martin Freeman’s morally compromised FBI agent, whose hunt for the missing money is fueled by personal greed more than professional determination--and strands them in a swamp of sweaty sex scenes (there are three in the first third of the premiere alone) and unnecessary, over-the-top action set-pieces.

When Startup manages to leave its sex scenes behind and gets to creating storytelling around largely unexplored territory in the cinematic universe, it is its smartest and most compelling. ... Unfortunately, those moments of interest are sporadic. Startup otherwise meanders forward with all the grace of a sex-starved teenage boy, skidding from the exotic to the illicit.

[Creator Ben] Ketai can't figure out how to make action-free things like character development, backstory and setting flow within the storytelling, and even the action that felt like it came so naturally to Chosen doesn't flow here.

An overstuffed, haphazard plot, bland characters, and devoid of any semblance of originality. StartUp tries to build a claustrophobic, intricate concrete jungle for its all-too-real, close-to-home plot device to dwell.