• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, February 27, 2023

CBS’s new “True Lies” has action to spare, but can they keep the adrenalin pumping week after week?

A great deal of effort went into producing the thrill-a-minute pilot, which the TV Blog previewed last week.

Much of the action takes place in Paris, and it looks authentic like the real city. However, having never been there, I have no idea.

“True Lies” gets its concept from the 1994 James Cameron movie thriller of the same name that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a swashbuckling spy who claimed to work as a computer salesman.

Jamie Lee Curtis played his wife, who had no idea that her husband was a secret spy until the day came when she became embroiled in one of his elaborate spy missions.

To the new TV show’s credit, it adheres closely to the movie set-up. The characters’ names are the same -- Harry and Helen Tasker -- and Harry still claims to be a computer salesman and that his sudden, frequent trips away from home are sales conferences in Cleveland and other places.

And Helen’s stumbling upon Harry’s secret happens in the first episode of the TV show in the midst of a far-flung mission involving an international arms dealer and a briefcase containing a new superweapon that is in high demand by governments around the world.

In subsequent episodes, Helen will train in the art of stagecraft and choreographed martial arts to become a spy working with her husband. 

Played by Ginger Gonzaga (pictured above with co-star Steve Howey), Helen is already shown to be lithe and athletic, so she is physically up to the rigors of her new job.

Even in the first episode, she finds herself punching out bad guys and even hanging from the landing rail of a helicopter in flight.

Just like in the movie, Helen complains that her life as a suburban mom has become boring and her marriage is mired in a rut. Now that is about to change.

The action in the premiere episode of “True Lies” comes on strong from the very first scenes and hardly lets up through the entire episode.

Also coming on strong, but not nearly as entertaining, is the TV-style repartee between Harry and his co-spies whose conversations consist of little more than wisecracks, some insulting and some not.

But that’s a minor flaw. The show’s better assets are its action, and its two principal co-stars. 

“True Lies” premieres on Wednesday (March 1) at 10 p.m. Eastern on CBS.