Intelligence is a TV show created by Nick Mohammed and it stars David Schwimmer and him as the lead. It hooked me in as I progressed with it, and even though it lacks in Character Development, it’s still too darn fun.
Intelligence Season 1 Plot
An NSA agent arrives in the headquarters of GCHQ in UK, he has to cope up with the different cultures and the vastly different ways of doing things. In turn GCHQ finds out that he might just not be the best NSA had.
Intelligence Season 1 Cast
- David Schwimmer as Jerry
- Nick Mohammed as Joseph
- Gana Bayarsaikhan as Tuva
- Jane Stanness as Mary
- Sylvestra Le Touzel as Christine
Intelligence Season 1 Review
Going into Intelligence, I had kept my expectations quite low considering the ratings that the show had garnered over the past year. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Sure it has its hiccups and jokes which don’t work, but the show overall managed to make me laugh so many times. It feels good to see David Schwimmer in a different kind of comedy role, it reminds me how good of an actor he is. But Nick Mohammed totally steals the show for me. His character is that cliché dumb guy in the office who is just there for the sake of it, but his jokes hardly ever felt overdone. Perhaps my biggest problem with this show is how it progresses the story of these characters. And well, it’s filled with a lot of pacing issues and often jumbles continuity. But apart from all that, I think Intelligence works on a lot of levels.
Intelligence stars David Schwimmer as Jerry who is this American Intelligence professional transferred to the GCHQ which is the UK intelligence agency. One of the first people to greet him in the GCHQ is Nick Mohammed’s Joseph and slowly over the course, their friendship sort of evolves in the typical buddy comedy manner. It plays off like a sophisticated dumb and the dumber. The other characters are a sassy hacker and an old clumsy woman who most definitely wears a wig. They are headed by a boss who aims at efficiency yet Jerry almost always does something the opposite way and wreaks all kinds of havoc.
Intelligence Season 1: The Dumb and The Dumber
The best thing about the show has to be the chemistry between the characters, especially Jerry and Joseph. Jerry arrives as a sophisticated, straight headed NSA agent but soon we realize that he has neither one of those traits. In a way he is very similar to Nick, with the only difference being that most of Jerry’s screw ups have a slight Suave with Joseph lacks. Jerry always finds himself competing for leadership and when he does, he has his own little way of doing things. He would randomly make blatantly racist remarks without ever being self aware about them, and at these moments, it’s Joseph who becomes the more civilized of the two. Nick Mohammed writes this show in a very light and consumable fashion, yet the production quality of Intelligence sort of makes it even more inviting. Joseph might be the dumbest human at times, but when all else fails, he is the one talking actual sense in Jerry’s ears. They both compliment each other in that.
The pacing issue as I mentioned earlier, is glaring in a way that it doesn’t develop the backstories and the main characters all that much during 3/4th of the runtime. The situations keep getting silly and humorous but the characters only ever evolve in the last two episodes of the season. The entire arc of Jerry and his background are completely ignored for the better part of the show, and then they are dumped all of a sudden in the last episode. Not even that, but the prior indication of a backstory isn’t strengthened that much and there is no build up to back the later revelations of Intelligence. Its almost like the show realized halfway that it is being renewed for a second season and hence they hurriedly created something for the last two episodes which could serve as a build up for future season.
And that’s about it, there isn’t much that I can say for the show as it doesn’t have a lot of complexity going around it. Its just really fun when it works. The jokes are funny when they hit and the character chemistries are something I really digged over the course of the show. It had issues, but I certainly don’t know why the ratings behind the show are this bad.
What to Expect from Intelligence Season 2 ?
From the looks of it, the agency is facing a Chernobyl level threat and Nick is definitely not happy about it. Meanwhile Jerry approaches a new date and Joseph actually goes on one, well with an earphone plugged in so that Jerry can guide him. This season definitely looks like the weird scenarios from season 1 are dialed up a notch. It’s exciting to see how Jerry and Joseph centered it seems, and while I know the other characters are also going to be dominant, Jerry and Joseph do form a good pair. All episodes of Intelligence 2 will be available from 8 June on Sky One and streaming service NOW.
Intelligence Season 1 Critical Reception
It has a rating of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being, “Intelligence favors schtick over character development, leaving its capable cast stranded in a sea of one liners in search of some character development.”
The Movie Culture Synopsis
In my opinion Intelligence is best when it does random events with jokes which don’t feel forced. And while most of them don’t, some occasionally do. I had mixed opinions about it as I began but after the finale, it sort of grew on me. Its fun and you should give it a try.
