Review: Graceland

BY SARAH SHARPE

On Thursday, September 12th, USA Network aired the season finale of its summer hit TV series, Graceland. “Graceland” is the name of a beach house in Southern California shared by six federal agents from the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Customs. The house serves as a sanctuary for these undercover agents who are heavily involved with gangs and drug lords. The series, which mainly follows the story of FBI agents Mike Warren (Aaron Tveit) and Paul Briggs (Daniel Sunjata), is anything but your average cop show.

Special Agent Mike Warren, who graduated at the top of his class at Quantico and had requested an assignment in Washington, D.C., is sent to live in Graceland with his training officer, Paul Briggs. The final scene in the pilot episode revealed that Mike was assigned to Graceland to investigate Briggs, who is believed to be skimming a portion of heroin seized from their undercover work.

With the setting doubled over in sunny South Florida, the beautiful beaches of both states make the cinematography stunning.  The script, written by the creator of White Collar, Jeff Eastin, is incredibly smart and the cast works amazingly as an ensemble. It’s no wonder the show was the number one new cable scripted series of the summer and saw ratings rise by about a million viewers over the course of the season.

Broadway actor Aaron Tveit, also of Les Misérables and Gossip Girl fame, gives a remarkable performance as rookie FBI agent, Mike Warren. His ascent from green newbie to assistant to the Deputy Director and everything he had to go through in between to earn that position is sensational and at many points, even heartbreaking. Rescue Me’s Daniel Sunjata is superb in his role as the man, the myth, the legend, Senior FBI agent, Paul Briggs. Briggs has one goal in mind: to eliminate the man that burned down his former safe house and all the agents in it. Sunjata captures Briggs’ tortured soul beautifully and his relationships with everyone else in the house are all so unique.

Vanessa Ferlito plays FBI agent Catherine “Charlie” DeMarco. She is the “mother” of the house and even though she has secrets that she isn’t proud of, she almost manages to win her game of cat and mouse with Briggs. However, Briggs is always 10 steps ahead of everyone else. Manny Montana plays FBI agent Joe “Johnny” Tuturro. Tuturro is the youngest in the house and doesn’t take things too seriously. He’s also very sensitive and absolutely hates being lied to by his housemates. Serinda Swan plays DEA agent Paige Arkin. She is the first in the house to know that Warren is investigating Briggs and even though she believes in Briggs’ innocence, she knows it’s her job to do what’s right. Brandon Jay McLaren plays U.S. Customs agent Dale Jakes. Jakes has a long history with Briggs and decided to put his job before his family. Because of that decision, he suffers emotionally.

Graceland was recently renewed for a second season and with Warren now in his dream job at the nation’s capital and evidence of Briggs’ accidental murder of Warren’s case manager, Juan Badillo, on the loose, anything can happen. It’ll be very exciting to see what Jeff Eastin has in store. Season two of Graceland is set to premiere next summer.