Talia Undercover review

The setup

Talia Reid walks into an office high above the city to interview with Mr. Vaughn, an executive who opens with a riddle about why time runs faster up there than on the street. She answers gravity, not deadlines, and wins a nod. Next comes a list of languages that sounds like a world tour, followed by a pointed question about whether she is single. Her one-word answer, which amounts to most of the time, is the best line of the episode. The office tour closes on a reminder that a salary this large must be earned.

Episode 2

The second episode moves the job to a private jet, where Vaughn brags about his mileage and Talia asks, sweetly, whether assistants collect any. Then his wife Viviana appears, introduced with a joke implying their two-decade marriage has had its gaps, and she notes that a brunette is a change. When Talia heads for the bathroom, a voice asks her not to close the door, and she replies that her shyness depends entirely on theirs.

Who's who

• Talia Reid: the new PA, unflappable, and fluent in six languages plus subtext
• Mr. Vaughn: a powerful executive who treats interviews as puzzles and flights as status symbols
• Viviana: his wife of two decades, amused, observant, and very interested in the new assistant

Verdict: 6.8 out of 10

Some of the sharpest dialogue a one-minute drama has any right to. Vaughn talks in aphorisms, Talia answers in shorter ones, and the jet adds a wife whose first remark is a quiet appraisal. It is slow by short-drama standards: episode 1 is essentially an interview with good lines and no heat. But the bathroom-door ending pivots smartly from boardroom to bedroom, and the undercover hook in the title is still unpulled. That open question is the best argument for paying.

Episode guide