My Own Worst Enemy

Starring: Christian Slater, Mike O'Malley, Saffron Burrows, Madchen Amick, Alfrie Woodard, Omid Abtahi, Taylor Lautner, Bella Thorne, James Cromwell, Mindy Starling, & Missy Yeager

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Own Worst Enemy was one of the critics picks to be the big winner of the 2008 Prime time TV line up, but was cancelled after just nine episodes. Despite gaining a cult following, and being released on DVD, the show was very expensive to make and just wasn't that interesting.

Christan Slater plays Henry Spivey, a simple businessman with a wife and two kids. Every day when Henry goes to work at his Insurance office, he looks into the elevators retinal scanner and is transformed to another person, Edward Albright, a top spy for an unknown U.S. Government agency. 

The first problem I had with this show is that the whole family situation could have been copied and pasted right from the film True Lies. If that was the only issue, I could have gotten passed it, but the truth is the every episode in the series was nearly identical and the show just went around in circles. Something breaks in Edward/Henry's brain and he keeps switching back and fourth at the most inopportune times. The two are made aware of each and often have to take each others place. They even leave digital messages for one another. 

That fact is that this show just wasn't that original, not to mention it was very predictable and extremely frustrating to watch. You had to know that almost every time Edward went on a mission Henry would appear and have to do something he wasn't trained for. It was cute the first time, but by the fourth or fifth time, I had more than enough of it. The same is true with the Edward showing up during family time and seeming strange to his wife and kids.

The bottom line, My Own Worst Enemy had a great cast, but a mediocre, predictable story, that just went around in circles. All the guns, explosions, and special effects in the world would have been enough to save this show.