When Democrat John Kerry was running for president it was rumored that his top choice for vice president under him was Republican John McCain. When asked about the possibility, McCain laughed it off by saying that the only job the VP has was to check on the health of the president every day. Funny but not entirely off because basically the only job the Vice President has is the President of the Senate where he breaks ties and is usually the one that is stuck going to weddings and funerals of foreign dignitaries. But being the tie breaking vote in the Senate rarely happens anymore and may never happen again thanks to the rise of the fillerbuster in recent years. Current Vice President Joe Biden has yet to break one tie yet. Granted Dick Cheney did get to cast eight votes which puts tied for eighth all time (keep in mind the Senate was split fifty-fifty his first two years in office), no VP since 1900 has had more (first Vice President John Adams broke the most ties at twenty-nine).
Since they really have nothing much other to do, besides check on the health of the president, who better to run an off the books clandestine operation? That is the premise behind Agent X. Sharon Stone plays the latest VP. It is unclear how exactly she got the job, it seems like the president has already been office so I am unsure if this is a Richard Nixon situation who picked a new Vice President when running for reelection, or maybe the last one died, or something else I missed entirely. On the first day of the job, she finds a secret passage in her new home that leads her to the real Constitution that has a fifth section of Article 2 not seen by the general public laying out the extra job by the Vice President. And wouldn't you know, the FBI director's daughter was just kidnapped and taken to the future spot of the new Russian embassy (which is still considered Russian soil even though the building is still under construction); a job perfect for Agent X.
The titular character is played by Jeff Hephner (Boss) who comes across like an Americanized version of James Bond. Gerald McRaney (Major Dad) is the Chief Steward of the Vice President's Residence who stewards Stone into her hidden duties. John Shea (The Trouble with Truth) is the one person in Stone's way to becoming the president and likes to be blissfully unaware of the Agent X program for plausible deniability. Third in line for the president is Mike Coulter (Jessica Jones) whom you will learn more about in the third episode. Jamey Sheridan (who was once a vice president on Homeland, but his secret was an easy to manipulate pace maker) plays the the FBI director who wants to know more about the mysterious man who may or may not have saved hid daughter in the first episode. James Earl Jones also pops up a couple times as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Homeland really set the tone for current governmental agency shows on television, which is to say dark and gritty and everything very high stakes. Agent X is slightly lighter though does not go as light as the National Treasure movies that also had our Founding Fathers hiding secrets from us. I actually wished this show would go a little more sillier (epecially considering it comes after The Librarians which knows how to have fun). And the show does seem to get darker as it goes along as most of the comic relief in the first two episodes comes from the hot Russian contortionist spy and the show get more serious after she rides off into the sunset (um, spoiler alert, the hot Russian contortionist spy does not die) hopefully to be seen again and soon as she is much more interesting than Agent X's ex-girlfriend who we meet in episode three.
Agent X airs Sundays at 9:00 on TNT.
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