My current guilty pleasure

… is COVERT AFFAIRS. And I admit I watch it for all the wrong reasons. I like seeing Piper Perabo running in high heels shooting people. This is hardly a reason to recommend a show to people. Especially in this era of extraordinary television drama. When you only have so much time and it seems every other day a friend is alerting you to an amazing drama you’ve never heard of (“Have you you checked out LUTHER?” “Have you gotten into ORPHAN BLACK?”) it’s tough to say, “There’s this show with a hot blonde who drives fast that you really have to see!”

But I watch it every week. I still haven’t gotten around to LUTHER.

Another plus for COVERT AFFAIRS is that they actually go to foreign locations. So Piper is running in Stockholm not the Paramount backlot. You get the theme here? COVERT AFFAIRS is a total visual experience.

It's also TOP GUN for middle-aged men, if you know what I mean.

The other actors do their best to believe they’re in a series where the stories really matter. Christopher Gorham, in particular, plays her blind handler/former lover with just the right amount of conviction and perspective. Sometimes they have him out in the field and those episodes are ridiculous. How bad are these terrorists when a blind man is beating the shit out of them, or worse, chasing them?

There is a subplot that continues throughout the series – the inner politics of the CIA. Fast forward through these. It’s all gobbledygook about who runs DSIT and who runs DSST – people are forever getting promoted and demoted from divisions with letters – and none of it means anything. Kate Machett always seems to be in the middle of these storylines and here’s the best way I can describe her character: She never wears a dress with sleeves.

COVERT AFFAIRS is a familiar format. Female James Bond. In the ‘60s they did it as THE GIRL FROM UNCLE , more recently as ALIAS. Hot bad ass girl thwarts evil organizations and super villains who’ve created Doomsday machines or have plans to fluoridate our water. And they’re usually home for dinner.

Today’s mayhem has been updated to include terrorists, drug cartels, and Eurotrash. There are plot holes (assuming you can even follow the plot) that you can drive aircraft carriers through, but if you’re paying attention to that then you’re watching for the wrong reason. Piper knows Karate moves. Piper swims. Piper looks great in a sleek red dress at some Romanian State Dinner.

The show takes itself very seriously, which makes it that much more fun when Piper overpowers seven thugs who are all as big as the Michelin Man.

This year they’re giving her some heart ailment, I suspect in an attempt to humanize her. So now she’s got to act in addition to wearing tight black leather pants? And so far she’s handled it quite well. In none of her “acting” scenes have they had to go to a double.

I poke fun, but Piper Perabo is very likable and watchable in a very physically demanding role. Action heroes require a unique set of skills. Agility, credibility, stamina, and cool. I remember the old WONDER WOMAN series with Lynda Carter, God bless her – she’d put on that costume and become the world’s sexiest Clydesdale. Piper pulls it off.

So I’m a regular viewer of COVERT AFFAIRS. I’ll never impress anybody by saying I watch it. I’d never include it in the list of great dramas from this Golden Era. But so what? I also watch distinguished Emmy-worthy shows. In fact, just this week MASTERS OF SEX returns with Lizzie Caplan. If only she could shoot a gun.