The following is a review of the first two episodes of Sight Unseen.
Every excellent detective show needs a hook. Sometimes, the detective is a rogueish outsider or has a particular personality quirk or compulsion. In Sight Unseen, ace detective Tess Avery (newcomer Dolly Lewis) abruptly loses her ability to see. At first, in denial of this, she puts her partner Jake (Daniel Gillies) in peril and lets a criminal escape. This leads her to quit the force, leaving her depressed and aimless until she connects with Sunny Patel (Agam Darshi) via a smartphone app that provides seeing eye people for the visually impaired.
It’s a novel concept – although not entirely new – and one that is dependent on the principal actors and their chemistry. This is no small order given that the characters are 3000 miles apart: Tess is in Vancouver, while Sunny is in New York. Luckily, the lead performers are easily the most vital aspect of this new series. Dolly Lewis is herself visually impaired (albeit not to the same degree as Tess) and does well with the frustration her character feels adjusting to a new life. It’s not just that she has lost her sight; she genuinely loved her job and hates having to give it up. It feels authentic enough that you can tell there is a level of personal experience there. It’s a nice bit of representation and it pays off in the performance.
Agam Darshi has her own challenges playing Sunny. She has agoraphobia and hasn’t left her home in nearly two years, jumping right into the opportunity to play detective with Tess. They form an unlikely bond, but it’s based on a bit of a mystery as Sunny has some major unresolved trauma that will surely be teased out throughout the season. Daniel Gillies is perhaps the most recognizable face in the main cast thanks to his time in the Vampire Diaries universe, and he is fine here. He does not have much to do in the first two episodes, but he has an easy chemistry with Lewis that has the potential to grow as the story progresses.
The other major factor in a series like this is the concept and how much it can be executed believably. There is material to be mined from the online pairing of these two women, but it feels like it could potentially be too high concept to maintain for the long haul. In the first two episodes, Tess hides her vision loss from her colleagues and friends. How long could that reasonably last? That said, while the premiere episode is rushed and overstuffed, there are the seeds of a good network TV detective show here, which could stand alongside Murdoch Mysteries or the many Chicago, Law & Order, or Sherlock Holmes adaptations. The second episode slows down to a much more manageable pace, unburdened by all the set-up.
In short, Sight Unseen is an engaging detective show and a refreshingly Canadian one at that (it is actually shot and set in Vancouver, a nice change of pace for a city that seemingly stands in for every major city in the United States). If you like police procedurals, there is something here for you, but it also has a unique enough hook to make it stand out in a crowded field. It easily has the momentum for at least a first season thanks a cast that understands the assignment and makes it worth your time.
An encore of the Sight Unseen premiere airs tonight, January 22, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, with new episodes premiering every Monday.