10-11 p.m.
Sunday, July 16
Lifetime

Angela Henson, FBI agent extraordinaire, is a hero only the Bush administration could love. She electronically eavesdrops without court authorization. She decides what's true based mainly on feelings she gets about people. If she just had lobbyist connections, she could be running the Justice Department instead of working for it.

Instead, Angela, played by petite Abigail Spencer, is the protagonist of a new Lifetime series that has both self-contained stories and a sweeping story arc that extends for the entire season and, perhaps, beyond. In the self-contained stories, Angela is a human lie detector. A twitch, a raised eyebrow, a constricted pupil -- that's all she needs to see to sort fact from fiction. If she ever gets bounced from the FBI, there might be an even better series with her as a professional poker player.

The longer story arc deals with her mother and father, former CIA employees convicted a decade ago of selling secrets to America's enemies. In the premiere, her father (Boyd Gaines) doesn't exactly admit he did these terrible things, but he doesn't deny it either. This suggests that exec producers Dan McDermott, who created the show, and Scott Shepherd, the co-writer and showrunner, plan to get some mileage out of the are-they-guilty-or-aren't-they question.

Angela has two other agents on her team, but they mostly follow in her wake. There's cautious, play-by-the-book Leo Jenkins (Lyriq Bent) and moderately cynical and slightly disheveled Dozer (Joe Cobden), in charge of all the high-tech gadgetry. It would be nice if they had something more to do than Angela's bidding, but a far bigger concern is Angela herself, or, more specifically, Spencer.

Put simply, Spencer lacks the heft for the role. She's a little whiny and has this petulant girl thing going on, characteristics that are at odds with a daring and headstrong G-woman. It's one thing -- and a good thing -- to be vulnerable. On "Alias," Sydney Bristow, played by Jennifer Garner, could be both emotional and indomitable. Spencer's Angela is much less convincing.

In the opener, Angela is assigned to help local police get the goods on a builder whose wife is missing and presumed dead. He proclaims his innocence but has a few secrets of his own. Meanwhile, a handsome stranger picks up Angela in a bar and love starts to bloom, at least until he finds out she bugged his cell phone. "I have some trust issues," she confesses. Happily, the mope understands.

Technical work conceals some of the problems. Director Michael Watkins pays close attention to lighting to create perfect moods, and the story moves at a brisk pace. It's just too bad that the rest of Angela isn't as persuasive as her eyes.

ANGELA'S EYES
Lifetime
The Cleary Co. and Bull's Eye Entertainment in association with NBC Universal Television Studio
Credits:
Executive producers: Dan McDermott, Tom Nunan, Cathy Schulman, Scott Shepherd
Supervising producer: Tracey Stern
Producers: Mark Winemaker, Jessica Queller
Director: Michael Watkins
Teleplay: Scott Shepherd, Dan McDermott
Creator: Dan McDermott
Director of photography: Rudolf Blahacek
Production designer: Karen Bromley
Set designer: Tamara Ulisko
Art directors: Edward Bonutto, Brian Verhoog
Cast:
Angela Henson: Abigail Spencer
Leo Jenkins: Lyriq Bent
Dozer: Joe Cobden
Gene Taylor: Rick Roberts
Colin Anderson: Boyd Gaines
Lydia Anderson: Alberta Watson
Jerry Henson: Paul Popowich