A First Look At: My Own Worst Enemy

I can't call this a Test Pilot post, because NBC still hasn't sent a full pilot of this Christian Slater drama. But given how bare the fall cupboard is so far, let's take a look at the preview scene NBC recently posted (apologies for the embedded ads):

The Show: My Own Worst Enemy (NBC)

The Premise: Christian Slater is Henry Spivey, a dull family man living in the suburbs. Slater is also Edward Albright, a secret agent and killing machine who speaks 13 languages. They're not identical twins; they're the same person, with two identities sharing one brain like a partitioned hard drive. As Henry becomes aware of Edward's existence, that partition starts to fall.

First Impressions: Like Henry/Edward, I'm of two minds. It's a nicely crafted scene, suggesting the show at least has the goods to be a thriller of decent smarts. But whatever doubts I had about casting Slater in the role are doubled. Here's the problem: this seems like the kind of setup that requires the actor to be two different distinct people, with different mannerisms and behaviors. Christian Slater has one set of mannerisms. For any character. Ever. He is always [arches eyebrow, does bad Jack Nicholson impression] Chrissstian Slaturrr. For a premise like this, you want an actor who loses himself in his characters. He's the opposite. Characters get lost in Christian Slater. Then again, we have not seen him as Edward, so I stand ready to be proven wrong.

Do I Want to Watch Another One? Well, I'll watch the rest of the pilot. That's something, right?