The marketing ABC threw out for “The Company You Keep”, its latest action-romance-thriller was built around the sexiness of its cast. And it makes sense. Both of its stars, Milo Ventimiglia (This is Us) and Catherine Haena Kim are really good looking. But the show really thrives when it showcases its con man action sequences.

Ventimiglia stars as Charlie Nicoletti, the good son in a family of con artists which also includes William Fichtner (a personal favorite) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead). After a con goes wrong, he ends up meeting Emma Hill (Kim) and the two actually fall for each other. The only problem is that she is CIA and a part of a big shot political family.

Showrunners want us to get lost in the romance between Charlie and Emma. This star crossed connection between the cop and crook is one that we’ve seen many times before.

But the show reaches another level when we get to see Charlie and his family run the con. Both of the sequences featured in the pilot make for really good escapist television. And when we get to see Emma get in on the craziness, it’s also pretty good.

All of the dominoes are being stacked nicely here. I could see them going in a few different directions and this cast is versatile enough to make it work.

I’m just really hoping that they realize that this crew might be better built in the arena of action, than going half speed trying to get us to bite on this romance.

But the pilot is worth a look. I’ll be there next week.

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