True Lies - Pilot

Inspired by the 1994 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, the "Pilot" episode of True Lies introduces us to super-spy Harry Tasker (Steve Howey) whose wife Helen (Ginger Gonzaga) and children (Annabella Didion and Lucas Jaye) believe he works as a travelling computer salesman. Lacking the goofiness of the film, or its stars, the series goes for more straightforward approach to the material as Harry invites his frustrated wife to Paris on work trip with his spy team (Erica Hernandez, Mike O'Gorman, and Omar Benson Miller) which inevitably leads to his two separate lives to crashing into each other when the pair are kidnapped from a Paris restaurant.

After surviving their trip to Paris together, and showcasing a variety of useful skills to Harry's boss (), Helen is recruited into Omega to be trained as another agent for Omega Sector while the pair will still need to act normal around their children and avoid letting slip what they really did on their short vacation. It's not a bad set up, and there's plenty of room for fun missions involving Helen learning the ropes, but there's little fun to be found in the characters themselves and the show's unwillingness to embrace the full craziness of the film.

• Title: True Lies - Pilot
• IMDb: link