CBS obviously has high hopes for the restart of “The Equalizer”, giving it a high-profile post-Super Bowl 2021 premiere – the most coveted TV time slot.
This is what the series will win, with the role of Queen Latifah, a huge audience that she will never approach again. CBS knows this, of course, but is confident that “Equalizer” will attract a sufficiently loyal core audience in today’s saturated TV landscape.
That remains to be seen, but Sunday night’s premiere gave us a perfectly predictable drama in that network of primetime forms. There’s nothing new here, at least not yet, but the “Equalizer” checks all the boxes, is well-operated with an attractive cast, and has a strong main character – which should be enough to guarantee a decent lifespan.
The series reimagines the 1980s CBS series starring Edward Woodward and the 2014 Denzel Washington film starring Latifah as Robyn McCall, who left the CIA after a stellar career that caught the bad guys. (There is a hint of things going wrong in Venezuela.) Divorced, she moved back to New York, where her 15-year-old daughter, Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes), lives with Robyn’s aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint), who was caring for the teenager in her mother’s frequent (and long) absences. This is not fully explained in the opener – nor any other contextual narrative points – but I expect to learn more about Robyn’s relationship with Delilah and Aunt Vi as the series progresses. (Robyn’s “cover story” is that she’s worked for a nonprofit all these years.)
The “equalizer” opens by arresting the way a lawyer is shot in a dark alley, an innocent young woman framed for gangland-style murder. This leads Robyn, who is officially “retired” and her team of companions – bearded (of course), iconoclastic hacker Harry Keshegian (Adam Goldberg) and Melody Bayani (Liza Lapira) – to a billionaire entrepreneur.
“You think you can buy and sell the whole world!” Robyn barks at him, a predictable line that isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but hey, it makes sense. Then she uses her crazy skills to solve the case and is a tough cookie, with an ingenious ability to solve any potential obstacle filled by her bursts of fists, karate kicks, beating people in the head … the usual things. We don’t expect anything less, and Robyn / Latifah delivers the goods (without sweating). It’s a comeback, but she’s the “Equalizer”, damn it, announcing her intentions to continue the good fight until the end of the episode.
Chris Noth is also on hand as William Bishop, Robyn’s CIA colleague, who now runs a private investigation firm in the city. We will see much more of it, no doubt, as the “Equalizer” is installed in its usual range from 20:00, on February 14. CBS is very good at this kind of genre offerings in numbers – and in this case, it should give “Equalizer” a fighting chance to make its mark.
