Parents' Guide to

The Enemy Within

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Cliched crime thriller has some gore, great actors.

TV NBC Drama 2019
The Enemy Within Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

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What's the Story?

Three years ago, THE ENEMY WITHIN's Erica Shepard (Jennifer Carpenter) was a brilliant CIA operative who had a warm, if complicated, relationship with her teenage daughter. But that was before she gave top-secret information to dastardly terrorist Tal (Alex Feldman) that resulted in the death of four people, including the fiance of FBI Agent Will Keaton (Morris Chestnut). But when a new series of attacks occur in four different cities at the same time, the intelligence community expect an even more deadly attack is looming. Reasoning that to catch a spy you have to think like one, Will temporarily springs Erica from her supermax prison with just one mission: stop Tal's plan by any means necessary.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Thanks mainly to leads Chestnut and Carpenter, both of whom are fascinating to watch, this cardboard-cutout pastiche of action series clichés is better than it would have been. But those cliches sure do pile up in The Enemy Within. Faceless law enforcement office with every single actor in gray suits, check. Big bad villains who do their skulduggery from a distance so they don't require humanizing who employ faceless henchmen with terrible aim, check. An angry cop fueled by the death of his woman, you better believe that's a check.

Carpenter's Erica, aka "the Benedict Arnold of our generation," the pilot tells us, stands out, though. Loving mom/murderous terrorist is a pairing we haven't seen often (though it's clear that her character shares DNA with Keri Russell's Elizabeth Jennings on The Americans), and viewers will want to see what she does next, as well as the backstory behind the events that landed her in prison. She's an interesting character -- marooned in an average series that rarely goes anywhere that'll surprise you.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why series like The Enemy Within about law enforcement officers fighting crime are so common. What dramatic possibilities do they offer? What inherent interest do they hold?

  • Does this show remind you of any other shows? Which ones? What specific scenes have you seen before in other movies and TV shows? Why do the same scenes play out in many different movies and TV shows?

  • Is the outline of this show -- foreign terrorists planning a large attack -- realistic? Is this a scenario that you fear? Why do terrorists make attractive villains in action/adventure narratives?

TV Details

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