Man, am I enjoying Covert Affairs even more than I expected, and even more as the series progresses beyond the first episode. And much more of that success has to do with Christopher Gorham's presence in the show than I'd anticipated.
I always found Gorham and his back-and-forth with America Ferrera on Ugly Betty a little exhausting. I'm sure that's in part because, much like the main character when the show was airing, I was in the process of breaking into the magazine industry, and I found some of Betty's faux pas and the general awkwardness between them embarrassing.
But this time around, woo, child, that man is irresistible. His character is blind, but instead of playing him herky-jerky and awkward, Gorham's character has a fluid physicality. A scene in the second episode where he spars in the gym with Perabo is relaxed, sensual, it's much more foreplay than instruction. In Miss Congeniality, a scene where Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt whale on each other was supposed to be sexy, but there was too much fury behind the fight for it to be genuinely alluring. Not so with this. Gorham's character is clearly offering these instructions so he can have an excuse to touch her, and to make her touch him, but it's neither creepily needy nor uncomfortably manipulative. There's a trust there, even if he knows it's erotic and she doesn't.
And even when his character isn't touching someone, there's a sexiness in his powers of observation. Sure, he's got an advantage in that he's heightened senses like smell so he can detect more of the world around him. But there's an allure in just noticing the details, and Gorham's character does that in spades. His blindness is the result of work, not birth, but with a light touch, Gorham's character has turned that injury into an advantage. He can hear and sense things other people can't, not because he's somehow the magical disabled guy, but because he decided to start paying very cute attention. I really think it is a fun, finely drawn performance, as so many of them are on USA these days. Perabo's lucky to have him as a literal and metaphorical sparring partner for the purposes of the show. Gorham's bringing out good things in her.