Deception: Discussion Thread

[Ann_SS]

I was looking next week's preview. It looks like Julian is manhandling Joanna. I hope that it take out of context.

[full hearts]

I hope the Joanna/Julian ship doesn't sink before it has even gotten started.

[Money]

I saw the episodes on OnDemand last night and I'm not surprised the show is struggling. I do not by Joanna as a cop at all and I'm wondering if it's because Megan is miscast in the role. She has chemistry with Julian but it's isolated. She doesn't have chemistry with the cast and that's the predominant problem. Watching her in scenes with them I never got the feeling for one second that she was ever close with that family and their putdowns of her ring more true than the closeness they're suppose to have.

[London]

It could be more or less how many years she's been away -- if they had a falling out and she left the family almost two decades ago I'm pretty sure any type of vibe from Point A. to B. will be tense and unrecognizable. They only show flashbacks of young Joanna with Vivian & Julian so its not hard to see why she'd somewhat have a better chem. with We's Julian than anyone else on the show. I believe the strain between them -- and for real I'm sure Joanna only knew Robert, Edward, Julian & Vivian seeing as Mia was not born and I doubt Robert was married to Sophia during that time.

I'm still waiting on a FB with Joanna/Edward since he seems to have issues with her for leaving them behind almost 20 years ago too. But I do enjoy her scenes with Tate and how he seems to want to ice Joanna out.

[Wales2004]

I missed the Pilot and saw half of Monday's episode so I watched it online earlier. The only two in the family that seem to have a problem with Joanna are Sophia and Edward. He's suspicious of her and Sophia probably sees her as a potential problem. I don't think she lacks chemistry with them. I think there is the right degree of awkwardness considering that she hasn't been around for more than fifteen years (since it seems that Vivian was pregnant in the flashback). A flashback with a younger Edward might shed some light on what their relationship was like.

NBC has had some decent shows fail over the years. That's not to say the other networks haven't as well, but NBC can't seem to find it's way back to anything resembling its dominant years.

[Ann_SS]

I thought this was a pretty good episode. Joanna broke my heart when she told Will about Julian and desperate distraction sex never works. She loves who she loves. I don't buy for a second that Julian killed Vivian. Robert called Haverstock a deviant and stopped talking to him about 20 years ago, he must be Mia's father. I love Edward standing up for himself against the board. Sophia is a piece of work threatening Edward's wife like that.

[Vanguardian]

So Julian was the person who approached Vivian's car in the pilot episode. This episode clearly implied that there's something that occurred between Viv and Jules and also between Viv and Eddie. I'm still wondering if something incestuous happened with her and Julian, with Mia being the result. Speaking of Mia, wasn't that guy she hung around with sleazy Ford from the defunct and soon to be revived OLTL? And I'm loving Sophia more and more. That's one bad bitch!

[full hearts]

I enjoyed tonight's episode. I think Joanna has interesting chemistry with Edward. I want flashbacks of them.

Sofia is one crazy bish. Threatening her DIL.

[Ann_SS]

I loved the scene of Joanna laughing getting out the helicopter with Julian. They are a physically beautiful couple. The cinematography on this show is so very good.

The ratings have gone down again so the future does not look bright.

[gtru1981]

still love the show!!

[Ann_SS]

Argh, could Will be any more an ass? I hope when Joanna was telling him that she was sorry that it was her way of saying goodbye because that relationship is a dud.

I am sure that Julian will forgive her and take her back in a heartbeat. They are a great couple and it is obvious that Joanna still loves him.

Poor Edward. I don't believe that he killed that girl. Mia and her new beau is a drag, but I love her relationship with her parents.

Robert punched the senator good. I hated how he spoke to Edwards and I am convinced that the Senator is Mia's biological father. I hope Robert plans to kill him at some point.

Since it does not look like we are getting a second season, I hope that that killer is revealed at the end of this season. I think that it is the senator, but we will see.

[Money]

Is Will the boyfriend? I catch the show on OnDemand with half interest. If so not sure why he's an ass considering Joanna repeatedly lied to him by omission. And when he did find out the truth, by wire, no less, she immediately copped an attitude and got defensive. He doesn't even know about the kiss they shared and it would have been a deal breaker for him.

This show has all the elements to be a good but it just isn't. I find the cast to be incredibly lackluster and Maegan does nothing for me.

[Wales2004]

Will is her former partner with whom she became romantically involved, if I recall correctly. I believe he said that she encouraged him to leave for a better job prospect.

Their relationship seems like an obligatory reconnection as an attempt to add drama. There's this total disconnect between them, imo. She seems a bit more engaged around the family. What doesn't work for me is the reference to her best friend. There's too much of a time lapse for me to take her referring to Vivian as her best friend seriously. It seems hollow. Childhood best friend may be a mouthful but it's more accurate or just old friend at this point. I buy that a person would want to find out what happened to her friend from the past. I'm just not buying the way it's being presented--as though it makes it more urgent.

The show is entertaining for me but it's not a must see. It's a drama/mystery that's missing a level of intensity. The premise kind of reminds me of The Killing. Even though I didn't care about any of the characters, there was something compelling about that first season. Right now the most interesting possibility is Mia finding out that her "sister" gave birth to her. When the mother threatened the daughter in law about taking the grandchildren away, that worked on some level. She seemed more of a caricature of an evil stepmother when she threatened Mia's friend.

[Money]

Maybe it's the presentation that you mentioned. The characters work on paper and I find the interconnecting stories interesting on some level but over all it just doesn't work for me. I think if the show had better direction with the characters it would work. Case in point Joanna and Julian - these characters clearly aren't over each other and I should be thinking damn, I can't wait till they share scenes together and work out their misunderstandings but I don't. Her relationship with Will should have more investment but the show can't be bothered or just isn't interested and that's too bad because it's needed to give her relationship with Julian more angst. I simply go meh, as I do with everything else. I think the mother is the most interesting because I was not expecting her to physically threaten the daughter in law. However it came completely out of left field and felt too manufactured to give the MIL purpose so it does feel like she's a caricature. I didn't get why the daughter in law would literally be instantly terrified considering she was never shown to be intimidated by the family before, and considering she already had the children and was two steps away from removing herself from the family completely, she already had the power and could easily gone to the husband since he would not have agreed with the MIL's methods regardless of their crumbling marriage. There are so many other factors I could debate but since I clearly don't know the characters' names it should be an indicator of how boring I find this show to be.

[Wales2004]

I don't find the show boring. It's just mildly entertaining and the writers don't seem to be up to much of a challenge.

The best thing about last night's episode for me was Edward communicating with his wife. That almost made up for the silly throwing the keys out of the window and it conveniently being at his feet by the end of their conversation.

I don't know what to say about the scene with Ben getting hit by the bus.

I find the police/FBI completely laughable. Maybe I'm not following that well enough but Will is FBI and I forgot the flimsy reason he's in on the murder case but he's after the Bowers. Usually the FBI takes the lead on joint cases but I probably missed something in the setup. What doesn't make any sense to me is why Joanna is at that station so often and how much time does she spend away from her new day job? They didn't even seem to be concerned that Ben might blow her cover--though that's a moot point now.

They may have wanted to show Robert beginning to be suspicious of Joanna but her finding the i.d.in that way was super lame. It made her look like a complete amateur. It would have been more clever to have her slip up in some other way that caught Robert's attention.

Will and Joanna's relationship status phone call scene fell short for me.. They should have given her a few moments of solitude after she hung up the phone to make her seem contemplative.

Neither Julian nor Will seem right for her. While Will's explanation of what he thought would happen addresses his attitude, they don't seem to have much of a connection. Julian is too wayward and an absolute jerk. His ball date throwing up might be a sign that she slept with that nasty Haverstock to get her client's drug fast tracked.