Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Counterpart’ On Starz, Where J.K. Simmons Plays The Same Guy In Two Different Worlds

We all like J.K. Simmons, right? The guy can play a hard-ass as well as your put-upon schlub of an uncle as well as anyone out there. The guy didn’t win an Oscar for nothing. But can he play two versions of the same guy? Counterpart, the new sci-fi spy thriller on Starz, has Simmons playing one man who 30 years ago became two because of some governmental shenanigans. We’ll try to explain below.

COUNTERPART: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Glass rains down on a Berlin street while the police come and investigate a body thrown from a high-rise window. More bodies are found in a hotel room; two of the investigators are looking for an assassin named Baldwin who has everything he needs to go to what they call the “Other Side,” but all they find is a scared prostitute.

The Gist: Little do these men know that the prostitute is Baldwin (Sara Serraiocco), who soon rids herself of the two investigators and makes her way to the Other Side.

Meanwhile, Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons) goes to work at a mysterious place called The Office of Interchange. He has a set routine: he plays Go at a cafe with a friend, then goes to work, when he changes into a grey suit, goes into a booth, reads codes to someone in a black suit, then leaves. After work, he goes and visits his wife Emily (Olivia Williams) in the hospital, where she lies in a coma after getting hit by a car six weeks earlier. He’s been working this job for 30 years, but gets turned down for a promotion as an analyst, with the interviewer, Peter Quayle (Harry Lloyd) telling him if he was going to get promoted, it would have happened by now.

One day, though, his routine is shaken up when someone from the “housekeeping” division takes him to an interrogation room, where Quaye introduces him to an agent they have from the “Other Side”: Howard Silk. Yep, it’s a guy who looks exactly like Howard and has his name. However, while Howard “Prime” is a meek office drone, the “other” Howard is a bad-ass “Section 2” agent who doesn’t tolerate bureaurocracy and likes to swear.

Howard “Prime” is perplexed: who is this guy? He demands Quayle tell him what’s going on. Turns out that 30 years ago, there was some weapons activity that ended up splitting the Earth’s timeline. So the two Howards had the same life until then because there was just one Howard; after that, things changed. Yes, it’s a bit tough to explain.

There is a treaty in place that severely restricts travel between the two “sides,” and the general public doesn’t know about it even after three decades. Baldwin is an “illegal,” a contractor who somehow slipped through the system and crossed without anyone knowing, and she’s there to kill people who work for The Office. “Other” Howard is there on a limited visa to flush her out and figure out who sent her, and he needs Howard “Prime”‘s help, as useless as he may be. Oh, and one more thing: Baldwin will likely be coming for Howard’s wife.

Our Take: So, um, yeah, things in the first episode are a little confusing. There’s no amount of exposition that can fully lay out the fact that there are two Earths that were one until 30 years ago, but have gone their separate ways since. “Other” Howard knows the deal, because he’s been working as a spy between sides for most of that time. But Howard “Prime”, the meek office drone whose wife is in a coma, is as confused as we were during this episode: is this a parallel universe? Something else? Who is this “Baldwin?” And just what the hell is going on at The Office?

Luckily, creator Justin Marks helps viewers out in the first episode with Quayle’s explanation to Howard “Prime” about the split 30 years ago, as well as some other details — like “Other” Berlin’s more-developed city center and aversion to germs. The other thing that clarifies the situation is Simmons. As you’d expect from the Oscar winner, he plays both Howards just different enough that it’s easy to distinguish between the two.

Howard “Prime” has a bit of a beaten-down air about him; his shoulders are sagging, his voice is soft, and the look in his eyes is one of weary caring. “Other” Howard, on the other hand, stands ramrod-straight, shoots an icy glare to communicate his barely-disguised disgust for his counterpart and the toadies he works for, and has a voice that cuts right through anyone who’s on the other side of his profanity-filled diatribes. If it weren’t for the dyanmic Simmons, the first episode would have been a confusing mess.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in this episode.

Parting Shot: After Baldwin escaped a chase through Emily’s hospital after “Other” Howard stood in for his counterpart, “Other” Howard goes back to the Other Side, sits in his favorite bar, sips a vodka, and starts grumbling when “Other” Emily (who he told Howard “Prime” was dead) sits across from him. Emily is looking to bring Howard back to the office for questioning.

Sleeper Star: We like Serraiocco as the tough-as-nails assassin Baldwin, and now that we know Olivia Williams wasn’t just cast so she can like in a hospital bed, we’re definitely intrigued.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing stands out, just the confusing nature of the first episode in general. But it’s something that likely couldn’t be helped, given the denseness of the story.

Our Call: Stream It. It’s worth watching just for Simmons’ dual role and how he plays the subtelties of each version of Howard. We did get a look at the first six episodes, though, and know that things clarify and pick up starting in episode 2, so if you have some patience to wait for the story to start sorting itself out, you will be rewarded.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Counterpart on Starz