Benjamin Bratt returns to series...

Benjamin Bratt returns to series television as JT Tisnewski, an Army major just back from active duty in Afghanistan. I predict the show will featurea cocky, devil-may-care but extremely capable officer whose unorthodox ways save the day and earn him grudging respect. I predict he'll butt heads with a lower-ranked officer who will nevertheless come through for said cocky officer despite the risks to her position. I predict that in the end it will all work out. What I'm trying to say is that E-Ring is a wee bit... predictable.

The pilot adequately establishes people and personalities who will no doubt clash on a weekly basis as they work together to solve a weekly crisis. While all this setup is happening, a Chinese national spying for the U.S. needs immediate extraction from Shanghai. JT is cocky enough to remind the hesitant Joint Chiefs that in America we do not leave anyone behind. Result? They dispatch a SEAL team to rescue the newly shorn spy and her (tardy) family.

Despite its best efforts, the episode generates precious little tension. With an on-the-run spy carrying sensitive intel on a microchip in her tooth (yes, tooth just like that scene in Dune), I want to wonder is she going to escape? I want to worry that she'll get captured and tortured. I want to fear that my country will get caught in an embarrassing international incident... yet, nothing. The only mystery lies in her frantic and unsubtitled cell-phone calls (to her mother, we later learn). Isn't it risky to be on the phone constantly while the government is hunting for you? "Um, Mom, could you hurry up? We're gonna miss our extraction!" The show does tease us with some Spy 101 maneuvers and a quick appearance change worthy of Alias' Sidney Bristow, but I'm never in the dark about whether our "asset" will be rescued. And I'm never in the dark that JT will save the day. But hey, I predicted that.