According to TNT’s new action series “Agent X,” a clandestine chamber exists in the underground catacombs of the Vice President’s official residence, which contains a repository of secrets and the original copy of the U.S. Constitution.
History buffs and constitutional scholars will be interested to learn that there is supposedly a heretofore unknown Section 5 to Article II of the Constitution, which is almost certain to stir the passions of conspiracy theorists.
Setting the premise for the TV series, the passage reads: “An agent of unknown identity is hereby authorized to serve at the discretion of the Vice President for the purpose of aiding the republic at times of great peril.”
Maybe FDR’s first Vice President John Nance Garner was not aware of this extraordinary power, since he allegedly described the authority of his office as “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” or something to that effect.
“Agent X” allows for Sharon Stone, widely-known for titillating cinematic work occurred years ago in “Basic Instinct 2,” to have a starring role in a TV series as that of the nation’s first female Vice President Natalie Maccabee, having already served as a Senator.
That the newly inaugurated Vice President is a widow whose husband died in a fiery car crash that she managed to survive is noted more than once, possibly leading conspiracy theorists to wonder if this was purely accidental, or something more sinister.
But I digress. On her first night at the official residence, Maccabee is introduced to her steward, Malcolm Millar (Gerald McRaney), a faithful servant whose duties go far beyond standard housekeeping. He’s one of the few people clued into the secret powers of the Vice Presidency.
In a scene fraught with Masonic imagery, a special key unlocks the passageway to the underground bunker where Millar tends to the high-tech command center which runs the Agent X program. Who knew the Vice President had more duties than attending state funerals and breaking tie votes in the Senate?
Agent X is John Case (Jeff Hephner), a combination of secret agent and deadly operative who seems to represent an amalgam of James Bond and Jason Bourne, as well as Nicolas Cage’s adventurer in the “National Treasure” films and the lone wolf driver in “The Transporter” franchise.
Even though initially surprised by her mysterious obligation to national security, Maccabee takes to her newfound role with relative ease, having been assured by the former occupant of the office and the current President (John Shea) that she’s up to the task.
To be sure, all the heavy lifting is done by John Case, who wastes little time in a surreptitious operation to retrieve the kidnapped daughter of an American official, who’s conveniently targeted by Russian thugs and an illicit oligarch for a trade of a Russian agent.
The Russian agent, whose loyalties to any criminal or foreign government seem to be flexible, is former gymnast and circus contortionist Olga Petrovka (Olga Fonda), a deadly and brutal femme fatale who can easily kill any man in a grip between her forceful legs.
The villains are the standard-issue Russian and Chechen bad guys who are either in the business of selling nuclear arms to terrorists or trying to obtain the same for their own nefarious purposes. These clowns are no match for Agent X’s single-handed assault on their turf.
As the series moves along, political intrigue is almost certain to percolate on domestic soil, right in the heart of the nation’s capital. After all, James Earl Jones, as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, needs something more to do than show up on the cocktail circuit.
It could be coincidental to also serving as one of the executive producers, but Sharon Stone looks far too glamorous to be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, given that she is usually dressed more like a fashion model than a serious political figure.
But then, “Agent X” is all about the mission heroics of stone-cold, straightforward deep undercover operative John Case, who can be as charming as Sean Connery’s suave Agent 007 and as ruthless as Liam Neeson’s former CIA operative Bryan Mills in the exciting “Taken” franchise.
Come to think of it, Jeff Hephner’s character also bears a lot of resemblance to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” a former CIA agent forced to operate as a solo operator in taking down the international criminal enterprise known as the Syndicate.
The point of “Agent X,” which is not far removed from familiar territory, may be formulaic espionage storytelling but it still offers plenty of fun for anyone who enjoys spy thrillers and the intense action scenes attendant to showdowns between the good guy and the bad ones.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
