Counterpart - Boring!

My wife and I started watching the new STARZ show Counterpart. It seemed like a cool concept at first. A parallel world - with identical counterparts living in it. Of course, it's not an original concept. The concept has been done before. Star Trek's Mirror, Mirror episode from the original series comes to mind. But still, the concept remains cool even though it's not original.

And I like the actor J.K. Simmons, who I first saw play the part of J. Jonah Jameson, in the first Spider-man movies. You see him on TV a lot these days as an insurance spokesman on commercials, but he was doing a fine job of acting in Counterpart. He plays two roles - a timid clueless dude on the original earth, but on "the other side" he's a mean, competent spy type dude.

So yeah, that concept was pretty cool. I had some problems with it though even from the start. First of all the story line is BORING. And I really mean it with those all caps btw. Another problem is that the writing so darn LAZY. And the all caps are appropriate there too. Why? They never explain just how the earth got duplicated. It's not like in Star Trek, where other dimensions existed by nature.

I think the whole premise is that earth, or our universe, or our dimension, somehow was duplicated. But they NEVER EXPLAIN JUST HOW THAT HAPPENED. I can only conclude the writers themselves don't even know how it happened. Because at this point the fist season is almost over, and not once have they even tried to explain just how it happened.

So the viewers are just supposed to buy in to the premise that the universe got duplicated. I'm not quite that gullible. I need at least some kind of attempt at an explanation. Even if it's far-fetched. Since they never made that attempt, it tells me the writers themselves are clueless. Perhaps they don't even care. If they don't care, why should the viewers?

And now with this latest episode I've had enough. That means I won't be watching anymore. Like I said, the story line is boring as hell. Another thing is here we go with another bad-ass chick. Yeah, a little 110 pound woman again, is a bad-ass assassin from "the other side" and she can beat up men twice her size and twice her strength.

But even worse, there's a nerd guy who has a wife. And he finds out a duplicate from the other side came over and took over her life, which means his real wife is probably dead. But does he turn her in? No. He says the timid clueless dude, "(J.K. Simmons' part) is the mole, not the fake wife who murdered his real wife. So to that I say bullshit, and I'll call this show what it is. Bullshit.

Bottom line on Counterpart. Good acting from J.K. Simmons, but it's boring as hell, with lazy writing, and bullshit choices by the characters. Not for me. Nor is it for anyone with a brain.