Whiskey Cavalier

Whiskey Cavalier truly is the kind of show network TV is made for. It’s fun and fluffy, a proper escape. It’s not going to create thought-provoking discussions à la Russian Doll, nor is it going have you stressed out watching.

Whiskey Cavalier has an appealingly daft streak of sophomoric loopiness.

Foley and Cohan look great and the evident pleasure they're having playing spy is infectious when coupled with the postcard locations and a little action flair. Whiskey Cavalier may not take you back to 1985, but it comes closer than some of the recent stabs at this genre.

You may detect a strong scent of eau de “Castle.” The 12-year-old boy within the adult TV critic finds this in the show quite pleasing. (I did watch every episode of “Castle,” to be sure.) I’m happy to overlook whatever is lacking or obvious or oversold or simplistic in its construction for the sake of the adventure, the scenery and the fun gang dynamics.

There’s something charming about its happy-go-lucky sweetness, and it’s a relief to watch a show aim at goofy fun and actually hit its target. But it’s also a show where most the recent cultural reference is a DVD copy of You’ve Got Mail, some of the jokes feel dated, and the settings (whether Paris, Moscow, or a random European farmhouse) look like hand-me-down locations from the first Bourne movie.

If there's room for a light-hearted spy procedural right now, the show feels like a pretty top-shelf version of one.

The show walks a tonal tightrope with ease, though there are some spots where it feels caught between television worlds.

Viewers have seen all these elements before, but in “Whiskey Cavalier” they’re deployed in a fun, fast-moving way that the show and the charm of its leads is hard to resist.

As sleek as it is silly, Whiskey goes down smoothly if pure escapism is your tonic of choice. [4-17 Mar 2019, p.11]

In the early episodes Cohan looks capable but not entirely comfortable with the fast-paced comedy. She’s surrounded by people who are at home with the show’s rhythms, though.

Yes, it’s cheesy, but it’s hard to hold that against the show too much when it’s also half the point. ... It also keeps insisting that Will and Frankie have undeniable sexual chemistry, but at least in the two episodes screened for critics, that has yet to prove itself.

This is a show like they used to make ’em. But it’s also one that needs to relax a bit and trust that its leads are as appealing together as the other characters keep telling us that they are.

Whiskey Cavalier could turn into a solid procedural for ABC, as both Foley and Cohan have enough charm to see it through its weaker moments. There may not be anything particularly new about what the show does or how it does it, but it checks the right boxes.

All flash, very little substance. For some, that will work. But plenty of shows (including CBS's "Elementary") manage to do both.

It's not bad, but it's not good. It's ABC's idea of fun. And that means the pilot ends with Will and Frankie arguing about who the leader of the squad is while Portugal, The Man plays them off.