The Counterpart

The story

This is a strange one. You cannot quite compare it to any mainstream show, but at the same time it feels familiar. Fringe maybe? Not really. It's not that shallow at all. I would say that it reminds me of a cancelled BBC America's drama "The Game". It has that familiar atmosphere and dynamics. And a lot of British actors which, as we all know, means quality.

"The Counterpart" follows a story of Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons)  and his wife, Emily (Olivia Williams). He is very much still in love with her and brings her daily flowers to a hospital, where she ended up after a traffic accident. Emily is in a coma and not responsive. Howard is a man with almost no friends and with a job in a bureaucratic UN agency based in Berlin. That's where the story gets interesting. One day, Howard meets his identical counterpart. It turns out that the East German scientist created a copy of their dimension. I say their, because the Howard's is a copy, which much more resembles our real world. His counterpart reveals to him that the two parallel worlds are maintaining political contact and that there's a lot of counterparts, like himself, that have infiltrated Howard's world. At that point, Howard is dragged into espionage world, and trough Howard's eyes we are slowly figuring out the reality of the relationship between the two worlds.

"The Counterpart" - promotional pic

The feel

I must admit that I am really not a fan of spy shows, but this show's believable science fiction twist is most welcome and it brings a much needed refreshment. The story takes place in Berlin, and that brings a special European feel to the story. It almost feels like neither Howard's nor the world of his counterpart are similar to ours. That brings feelings of uncertainty and, frankly, enjoyment. J.K. Simmons is brilliant in his roles (Both Howard's and his counterpart's) and the most important fact is that you, as a viewer, can easily recognize which of those two characters Simmons is playing, even when they are not magically put together in a scene with the help of some fancy CGI. Yes, that's how good of an actor Simmons is. All of the other actors are great character actors as well (must point out Harry Lloyd and Olivia Williams), and that leads to our full understanding and emotional support for the persons they are playing.

Some of the retro gadgetry in the show

Spoiler

In the last episode of the season, we saw both sides communicate with "The management" through some really weird devices. The sounds that we could barely hear from the device sounded unearthly (scrambled and alien). That was a great way to leave us viewers interested and guessing who the management really is. Do they live in a third world/dimension? Or, are we going to get an alien domination story? Maybe it is one side that controls both?  The pace and the feel of the show are telling me that we might never find that out. But, if it worked for "The Leftovers", I cannot see why it wouldn't work here too. As long as the story makes sense and both story and the characters are worth our time.