On the series premiere of True Lies, Helen discovers her husband’s top secret job. After helping Harry on his mission, she is recruited to also be a spy for Omega Sector. This week, Helen begins her training and sets out on her first mission.
In order for the team to prevent a bioterrorism attack in Western Europe, they must find a cartographer to decode files that reveal the location of the bioweapon. The couple use the guise of an academic conference as cover to meet their asset. The catch here is she has a complicated personal history with Harry.
You can give some aspects of True Lies a lot of leeway considering the genre. They are always trying to save the world so the overall situations can be big and unusual. But you wonder if the series believes itself. The premise used for Harry and Helen to attend the conference together is rather thin that even their children don’t believe it.
Furthermore, this episode of True Lies has some uninspired writing going to the jealous/insecure spouse route. The major beats regarding the strained relationship are highly predictable with much of the marital conflict due to lack of communication and the husband being a bonehead. At least Helen isn’t as caught up over optics as Harry is.
Sure Harry and Helen smooth things over in the end and reaffirm their love, but I thought a main premise of the show is to spice up their marriage. Not find ways to derail it. Plus, for a couple that has been together for so long, you would expect they wouldn’t be so apprehensive or be more honest and open with each other.
The humor of True Lies keeps things interesting. Omar Miller’s Gib provides levity and the actor has some of the most entertaining facial expressions when learning who the asset is. Speaking of the asset, the jokes about her hair are funny along with the purposefully extended pause to watch it flow in the wind.
It’s always a pleasure to see Mrs. Myers pop up as the neighbor who is really keeping tabs on the kids. Deneen Tyler really leans into the cat loving to make the character unassuming, but she is probably someone you wouldn’t want to trifle with. Also, from a costuming standpoint, they can really make Steve Howey look like a dorky dad sometimes with his short-sleeved button down tucked into his khakis. However, all the positive parts of the episode are only moments and are unable to compensate for the safe storyline.
“Public Secrets” is a predictable and adequate episode whose few fun moments are unable to make up for its shortcomings.
New episodes of True Lies air Wednesdays on CBS.
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