ABC, you did good. And we’re not talking mediocre kind of good. We’re talking you have a hit on your hands kind of good. We’re talking you’ve made us anxiously await more of The Company You Keep. Yes, we’ve set our DVR to record episodes so that we can watch and rewatch.
It’s that kind of good.
We got the general gist of the show – criminal and CIA agent are both lying to each other and are involved. They are doing their jobs, not realizing that they job intersect. Yet, even with that, the show is so much more. It’s multi layered.
It’s a story about family, love, crime, and always trying to stay one step ahead. We believed that we would have trouble with the show, because if you are like us, Milo Ventimiglia is Jack Pearson. Seeing him as something else is hard. We know that has to be hard for him as an actor, because he’s had a history of being typecast in roles. That has never stopped Milo though.
In our opinion it’s only motivated him.
The pilot of any show is one that we don’t really stake a lot in. As a matter of fact, a lot of time we know that we need to keep going past the pilot and do so with fear. The Company You Keep doesn’t make us move forward with fear.
We move forward with excitement to see the storylines unfold.
The Nicoletti family owns a bar, but they have a history of pulling off smaller cons and crimes. They seem like a family that has a hard time letting anyone close, because of what they do, but they have welcome Charlie’s fiance.
Only Charlie’s fiance double crosses them and runs off with the 10 million dollars that they thought they had gotten from a job. This leaves them stressed, trying to figure out what happens next, and Charlie… heartbroken.
Charlies life is so wrapped up in his family that I don’t think he knows who he is without being what they have taught him to be. Letting them down is his worst nightmare. So much so he’s even willing to put his heartbreak aside.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to go to the hotel that he had rented that night and escape. Enter Emma Hill. She’s a CIA agent that has just found out that she’s been being cheated on by her husband. She’s gone to the bar and wants to escape.
The first guy that hits on her, she breaks down how she knows that he’s married and he backs off. Charlie overhears and they start talking. But that’s the thing. They aren’t talking as if they are hitting on each other. They are shooting the shit and they are acting as though everything is a hoke. They are laughing and taking shots like they are drinking water.
The preview had me thinking a lot of things and it definitely conveyed a lot of things. But what it didn’t show us was the extent of Catherine Haena Kim and Milo Ventimiglia‘s chemistry. These two have a natural chemistry that makes every moment of these episodes captivating. You can’t look away from the screen.
You can’t get enough of Charlie and Emma. Yes, their characters are liars. Their characters are people that you are invested in from the moment that the screen shows them. As characters on their own and as characters together – what we see are two characters that you are so emotionally invested in that you want to see them succeed past the things that hold them back.
Charlie is extremely charming, but Emma is too in her own way. She’s extremely guarded, but when she and Charlie are together you see a different side of her. One that you want to be your friend and one that you find yourself rooting for. She’s great at her job – so good that she’s managed to crack that an international drug smuggling ring is moving into the United States.
It’s kind of what ties them together that they aren’t aware of. See the man behind the drug ring is the guy Charlie fucked over. Emma’s tracking him down and Charlies trying to outrun him. Well, him and Daphne (the drug dudes business manager).
Speaking of Daphne, she’s ultra scary. She’s this confident criminal that second guesses everything and everyone. So when Emma and the FBI are taking down the drug lord, and Emma sees her running. She takes after Daphne and ends up getting into an accident. Emma is hurt, but her hurt doesn’t bother her. Loosing Daphe pisses her off even more.
Now, I should rewind a second – because the night before Charlie and his sister were at an event, pulling off a job, and stealing money from a TV preacher (don’t worry, he’s a crook who has been laundering money and it’s the only reason that he keeps on preaching). Charlie and Emma ran into each other that night, after thinking that they wouldn’t see each other anymore.
Emma tries to tell him how she feels about him – that she can’t get him out of her mind. But after Charlie gets the guilt trip of a lifetime from his sister, he’s not sure of what to do. So, being as family is first for Charlie, he’s lied to Emma and said that he doesn’t think of her. He’s lied and said he’s over her.
But the next day, he shows up and Emmas and tells her that he was lying. He tells her that he lied. He’s thought about her. He can’t stop thinking about her. He wants to be with her.
And she believes him.
Milo Ventimiglia is a star, but Catherine Haena Kim is too. This show is theirs. So don’t think for a second that this is just his show. This is everyone in this casts show. Each has the power to hold you to them when they are on the screen. Each holds you to the story when they are on the screen.
Charlie returns home and Daphne’s found him. She’s told him that she now works for him – that he needs to repay the 10 million that he stole, but another five also. We almost choked, but we knew that it wouldn’t matter to Charlie.
He was going to protect his family no matter what.
So yes, The Company You Keep is a story about love, but it’s also a story about family. It’s a story about crime. The Company You Keep is like an onion with so many layers that you want to peel away and get to its heart.
We’re here for every con, crime, and crime that’s solved. And our asses will be planted in front of the television every Sunday to watch it.
