SERIES PREMIERE: The two best things about this rather dark, mostly restrained fantasy show are that a) it’s got lots of moody location shooting from Berlin, where it’s set, and b) it’s got two great, mostly moody performances from its star, J.K. Simmons. The sci-fi premise of
Counterpart is that a government experiment accidentally created a dimensional rift some 30 years ago, spawning a parallel universe whose existence, and access point, is known only to a few. Simmons plays an accomplished spy from the other world who slips into this one, revealing a plot requiring him to impersonate his meeker low-level agency functionary in this world. Fans of Fox’s
Fringe came to accept this sort of inter-world, intra-world traveling and
doppelgängers rather easily, and before the first two episodes are over, we’ll meet several more characters and their doubles, including a violin virtuoso in one world who’s a ruthless assassin in another. It’s all a bit murky and less than fully credible even according to its own established rules – but the show looks impressively oppressive, or oppressively impressive – and Simmons, in both roles, is the real reason to watch.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.