Countdown - Teeth in the Bone / Dead Lots of Times
The death of a Homeland Security Officer (Heroes' Milo Ventimiglia) with access to the Port of Los Angeles launches a joint task force made up of LAPD, FBI, and DEA who are brought to get to the truth of why the officer was killed and what has just been smuggled into the United States. Believing anyone could be corrupt, FBI Special Agent Nathan Blythe (Eric Dane) puts together a crew of talented agents known for doing the right thing even to the detriment of their own careers including LAPD Detective Mark Meachum (Jensen Ackles) and DEA Special Agent Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho) for their undercover experience and connections, FBI Special Agent Keyonte Bell (Elliot Knight) for his experience with terrorist threats, LAPD Detective Lucas Finau (Uli Latukefu) for his experience with narcotics and smuggling, and fresh-eyed FBI Special Agent Evan Shepherd (Violett Beane) for her technical skills.
The opening episode of the new Amazon series is mostly about bringing these people together, investigating the victim and ruling him out as as suspect in the larger smuggling scheme, and being just too late to stop to stop the transfer of nuclear materials at the port from changing hands, greatly raising the stakes of what the team is up against. In the second episode we see Oliveras put her old connections to work as the team smuggles heroin over the border in order to learn who is behind the pending terrorist attack while quietly musing on the concept of letting the little fish go to catch the big one. At the same time, "Dead Lots of Times" also provides flashback scenes to Russian Borys Volchek (Bogdan Yasinski) strongly implying he is the one with plans for the nuclear attack on American soil.
Only two episodes in you can already see the conspiracy meter rising (which will no doubt continue and we'll just have to wait and see if it eventually gets out of hand as these kids of crime thrillers can) while the show also introduces potential smaller threats to the team from both within in secrets the agents are keeping from each other and from outside such as the local Attorney General (Merrick McCartha) snooping around the situation looking for something he can use to further his own career. Ackles and Camacho are pushed hard as the main leads on the ground for the team, butting heads but eventually finding some common ground, with the others finding smaller roles (at least so far).
