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Sep 21, 2015 Web Exclusive By Zach Hollwedel

A beat cop patrolling Times Square discovers a giant duffle bag left abandoned in the middle of New York City’s greatest tourist destination with a cryptic, unsettling note pinned to its side—“Call the FBI.” The bomb squad quickly responds, but no one expects what happens next. The bag unzips, and out climbs a naked woman with no memory of her past. The only clue as to who she is and why she’s there is the web of fresh tattoos that covers her body from head to foot; the biggest, most pronounced of them all—smack dab in the middle of her back for all to see—says “Kurt Weller FBI.”

Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) soon finds herself in federal holding, with agent Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) brought in from the field to spearhead the case of the unknown woman. Doe is unable to formulate any sense of self, so it shocks her just as much as it does the FBI team when she fluently translates a Chinese tattoo inked behind her ear. The markings provide an address, which leads Doe, Weller, and a couple other agents to a Chinatown apartment, where they begin to unravel a terrorist plot. From there, the formula is set—Doe’s tattoos prove a valuable crime fighting and stopping asset to the feds, while hopefully shedding light on and jogging memories of her mysterious past.

Blindspot has been generating a lot of buzz these past few months as one of NBC’s most promising rookie shows of the season, and with good reason. It’s a fully absorbing hour of primetime television, gripping and mysterious from opening scene to end credits. Alexander is fierce as the hard-hitting yet lost Jane Doe, and Stapleton does a commendable job as Weller, employing refreshing restraint in what could so easily have been yet another stereotypically gruff TV cop. So often, on-going serialized, case-of-the-week mysteries such as Blindspot are plagued by one of two persistent diseases: unbelievable and/or unintelligent cops, and civilians working cases they have no right or training to be involved in. Blindspot is indeed guilty of both, but somehow, it seems much easier to forgive in this case. Though it is downright unfathomable that foiling a terrorist plot against New York would rely solely on three FBI field agents and an amnesiac woman, the mystery of who Jane Doe is sufficiently trumps any logic holes in Blindspot‘s pilot. There’s no reason the FBI should (or would) allow Doe to go on mission with them, but she does (and will), so accept it and move on. It warrants a little suspension of disbelief, but Blindspot is a fun, entertaining, action-packed thriller perfect for a Monday night lineup. (www.nbc.com/blindspot)

Author rating: 7/10