Professionals debuts on The CW on Oct. 11, 2022, with new episodes weekly.
Shot in 2019, but just debuting on The CW now, Professionals is the oddest duck of a television series. A remake of Soldiers of Fortune (2014), it stars Tom Welling as an international security expert and Brendan Fraser as a super rich futurist who needs him to find out who sabotaged his billion-dollar rocket. Because it’s an international production, it’s shot in a frame rate that makes it look like a western soap opera (or a TV set on motion smoothing). Despite the global locations, there’s a jarring cheapness to the whole endeavor that keeps it from even matching visual standards of the rest of the CW slate. Coupled with a script full of clunky dialogue and action that is pretty bargain basement, Professionals can’t compete with similar series doing it better even with tight budgets.
Opening in French Guiana, futurist Peter Swann (Fraser) and his paramour, Dr. Grace Davila (Elena Anaya), are preparing to launch their Panacea satellite into space. A non-commercial creation meant to track diseases before they become pandemic, they intend their project to change the game in terms of preventing global disasters. And then, the rocket blows up. Heartbroken by the expensive failure, they both suspect foul play. Swann turns to Vincent Corbo (Welling), an elite security specialist who gets top dollar to solve the problems of rich clients around the world. Plus, Davila used to date Corbo so she knows he’s the guy to find out who sabotaged their rocket. Is Corbo a rocket scientist? No. Alright, then.
The trio then team up to investigate the launch pad vicinity, which takes them to a potential sniper roost and a 50-caliber bullet casing that all but ensures outsider tampering. Along the way, Corbo gives off a god-tier level of nonchalance as he assuredly anticipates every revelation, twist, and potential bad actor in their path. Meanwhile, Swann quips and blusters mightily, and uses his money to get them out of any pinch Corbo can’t seem to remedy. In another show, our dudes would be typical Alpha male archetypes. In this one, they’re more like competent dads who can’t be bothered to get buff or do any narrative heavy lifting outside of squinting a bit.
Adept as always with the action/comedy vibe, Fraser looks like he’s having the most fun out of anyone in the series. He still has great comedic timing and knows how to make even the lamest dialogue come off better than it most certainly was on the page. Welling gets the occasional pithy snapback, but Professionals requires him to stay mostly in “serious, stick in the mud” mode to keep up the unflappable spy guy facade. There’s potential for them to become more buddy cop in the future but that’s entirely contingent on the dialogue improving, a lot.
The supporting cast are international actors from around the globe the likes of Saïd Taghmaoui (Wonder Woman), August Wittgenstein (The Crown), and Jazzara Jaslyn (Warrior), but they’re saddled with even worse dialogue and less character development. Creators Michael Colleary (Face/Off) and Jeff Most (The Crow) both have some great credits on their resumes, but this series reads like they had enough budget for two big-name stars and everything left over is reserved for the occasional modest car flip or noisy gun fight with minimal blood squibs. I will give them their two modestly clever investigation turns in the pilot script, but everything outside that is executed with such poor production value that there’s no opportunity to just get lost in the adventure fantasy or be impressed with anything in the frame. Instead, you just silently hope Fraser or Welling don’t trip and hurt themselves because there’s no chance Professionals can afford an on-set doctor.
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