What is it about equalizing that has proved so enduringly popular? The original TV series The Equalizer, starring Edward Woodward as a former covert-ops agent who helps average people in dangerous situations, ran for four seasons on CBS from 1985-1989, and the loosely adapted The Equalizer films, starring Denzel Washington, were box-office hits in 2014 and 2018. Now there’s yet another version of The Equalizer, this one returning to CBS and adapted more faithfully from the original.
The premise is timeless and easy to grasp, and it provides for an endless source of episodic storylines, so it makes sense that CBS, home of many meat-and-potatoes crime procedurals, would pick up on it. The characters have been lightly reimagined for 2021, but the central hook remains the same, and creators Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller (longtime writers and producers on Castle) are smart not to mess with it too much.
Queen Latifah takes over the title role as Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative who left “the company” after an operation gone wrong in Venezuela (the details are left vague, presumably for a future flashback episode). Now ostensibly retired, she lives in New York City with her predictably rebellious teenage daughter Delilah (Laya DeLeon Hayes) and her predictably sassy, wise aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint).
Unlike Woodward’s Robert McCall, who actively sought out his first clients, Robyn doesn’t initially plan to set up an agency to help the helpless, and the way that she randomly encounters her first case is a little convenient. But when she stumbles across diner waitress Jewel (Lorna Courtney) being harassed by a group of thugs, she takes an immediate interest, and she devotes herself to clearing Jewel’s name in a murder investigation. The Equalizer’s pilot -- the only episode available for review -- sets up all the important players and gives Robyn an emotionally resonant case that convinces her of her new career path.
The case itself is unremarkable, eventually encompassing a corporate cover-up and a pair of mercenaries with government ties, who demonstrate the more sinister direction that someone like Robyn could take after leaving government service. Everything is wrapped up by the end of the episode, just as it would’ve been in the 1980s series, and aside from a modern, albeit clumsy, tech angle and a couple of references to racial justice, the entire episode could’ve come right out of the 1980s, too. That’s not necessarily a complaint, since too many current series get bogged down in superfluous serialized storylines. It’s refreshing that Robyn doesn’t have an ominous mystery from her past to solve or an all-consuming conspiracy to face down.
Even Robyn’s former government colleague Bishop (Chris Noth) is more of a benevolent presence than a threat, and their collaboration recalls the dynamic between Woodward’s Robert McCall and his former boss known as Control (Robert Lansing). Latifah and Noth have an appealing dynamic as a pair of world-weary spies, and The Equalizer would do better to focus on their pairing at least as much as the team that Robyn assembles. She reaches out to her former associates Melody (Liza Lapira) and Henry (Adam Goldberg), a married couple who’ve also left government service (Henry even faked his own death) and now run a Brooklyn bar with a surprisingly vast high-tech command center in the basement.
That command center, along with the support team, steers The Equalizer toward typical crime drama territory, and it’s a little ridiculous how easily and effectively computer expert Henry can hack into every company and organization that Robyn needs infiltrated in order to close Jewel’s case. Henry’s giant wall of machines and monitors looks like something out of a well-funded intelligence agency, not a two-person operation in the basement of a bar. Likewise, former sniper Melody is so absurdly accurate with her shots that she takes the place of an entire squad that might otherwise be required for Robyn to carry out her missions.
But Lapira and Goldberg are both lively, energetic presences, bringing welcome comic relief to the show, and it’s better for Robyn to have associates to interact with, rather than end up a dour lone wolf like the Denzel Washington version of the character in the Equalizer movies. Latifah has a charismatic screen presence, but Robyn herself is a little blandly upstanding, with a certain air of moral superiority. “Everyone has a price,” the episode’s bad guy tells her. “Not me,” she responds self-righteously. Not every TV protagonist needs to be an antihero, but Latifah and the creators will need to give Robyn some added dimensions if she’s going to carry the show.
The pilot closes with Robyn posting an online ad with the same wording that the original Robert McCall used in his newspaper ad, and the credits include a dedication to late Equalizer co-creator Richard Lindheim. It’s clear that the creators have great respect for the original series, but this new version of The Equalizer is going to need a bit more of an original voice if it’s going to stand out in the crowded pack of standard-issue CBS crime dramas.
Starring Queen Latifah, Tory Kittles, Liza Lapira, Adam Goldberg, Laya DeLeon Hayes, Lorraine Toussaint and Chris Noth, The Equalizer premieres Sunday, Feb. 7 following Super Bowl LV on CBS, with subsequent episodes airing Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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