BETRAYAL

*1/2 (out of ****)

 

There are many times, throughout the wonderful magic that is New Fall TV, I try to put myself in the shoes of the network exec, trying to justify their jobs with each passing pilot season. Maybe we only get the best of the best, prompting the ever-hilarious line “If this is the best, I’d hate to see the worst,” but I’d like to think that they see something in each show they approve. They might not think that all of their new shows are The Wire, but they bring something to television that wasn’t there before. OR, they capitalize on a current trend, bringing nothing new to television, but they have the chance to make their network millions. That doesn’t mean I’m going to watch it, but I get it. And then we have Betrayal.

 

Hannah Ware (Kelsey Grammer’s daughter on Boss) plays a photographer who finds herself having an affair with a corporate lawyer. They see something in each other that no one has ever seen before, even though we’re there when they meet, so we’re there every step of the way, and we can’t see anything in either one. Ware has her issues with the affair, as a poorly timed phone call from her husband and kids doesn’t cripple the first tryst, but definitely postpones it for a day or two. By the end of the episode, a person dies, a mentally challenged kid is accused, and OF COURSE, the two lawyers on the case are Ware’s husband on one side and Ware’s lover on the other. When she finds this out, she falls to the ground, crying, as if her children killed each other. She doesn’t just think “I should probably end this affair” She falls to the ground trembling.

I think a trend has officially started. Here we have Betrayal, after Scandal and Revenge became hits, and a show named Deception existed. I guess Betrayal comes from the Capitalizing-on-a-Trend category, but there’s so little here beside the soapiness and similar name. Other than that, it’s just trying to hook (trick) some of those Revenge fans into adding another show to their DVR, which means that, logically speaking, this show can only have a rating smaller than Revenge which, for all intents and purposes, is a much better sure. This won’t make it to the fourth episode.

 

 

-Ryan Haley