Minority Report: Honor Among Thieves Review

This Minority Report review contains spoilers.

Minority Report Season 1 Episode 7

Arthur, the opportunistic pre-cog in Minority Report, doesn’t directly get Dash into trouble in “Honor Among Thieves,” but the type of conflict between the brothers that this episode depicted was bound to happen sooner or later. I have to hand it to Arthur: stealing money from a banker who was about to die anyway is a crafty way to gain a fortune. Which makes it all the more interesting to see his back story, his interactions with Vega, and his self-sacrificing intimidation of the criminal element.

In some ways, Arthur’s maneuverings are more interesting than Dash’s altruism. Although his covering up of the murder and his inadvertent placing of Dash in harm’s way are despicable, viewers got to see that it wasn’t always that way. Apparently, Arthur used to be the one who wanted to help, and Dash was more cautious, as evidenced by the flashbacks this week, which showed the pre-cogs just after the end of pre-crime. I already liked the Arthur character; now I might even like him better than Dash in some ways.

Dash himself is likely used to the situation he found himself in with Vega, showing up at a crime scene too late to save the victim. However, I wanted to scold him for investigating on his own and knew that couldn’t possible end well. He still had some clever moments in convincing his female captor to get rid of the other guard, her philandering, husband-killing lover, but Dash was mostly still overshadowed by his brother this week, even in the flashback.

It is nice to see the procognitives take their first steps out into the world after the abolishment of pre-crime, and all three characters looked and sounded appropriately naive. Henry Blomfield’s (Reed Diamond) presence at the shutting down of pre-crime definitely makes me more suspicious of him, but it gave a great look at how the siblings handled their newfound freedom, which was a nice bit of depth to receive.

Vega is seemingly just along for the ride with this mystery, letting Arthur and Dash do their thing. This worked out well, but her character continues to be a weak spot in an otherwise okay show. Wally and Akeela are window dressing this week as well, but they have the advantage of already being minor characters. Although the crime being solved was innovative, I still feel like I’m just watching an episodic crime show instead of a science fiction experience.

However, there were a lot of cool elements this week, including the re-attached finger, the social awkwardness of the neophyte pre-cogs, and the wonderful performance of Peter Macon as crime lord, Luca Van Zant. For the that last item, I almost wish the Chinese “business partners” don’t kill him since he could be a great nemesis.

This week was definitely a better Minority Report episode, and the show seems to have settled into its own skin. The sci-fi procedural can be a bit of a dud for hardcore serial sci-fi fans, but this show does its best with what its got. I’m anxious to see where the groundwork laid today leads!