The first two episodes of Professionals give us the pairing of a talented soldier of fortune (Tom Welling) and a good-natured billionaire (Brendan Fraser) who get teamed up through a woman (Elena Anaya) and the destruction of a recent rocket launch. Neither of our two stars is asked to do all that much. Fraser can sleepwalk through playing the goofy nice guy which was his bread-and-butter for decades with a scruffy Welling getting to play the bad ass, but still principled, leader of a band of soldiers.
The circumstances allow for a basic odd-couple pairing throwing the two together with the specter of one man also dating the other’ man’s ex. When staying in the moment, I enjoyed parts of both the series’ first two episodes which end with Corbo (Welling) and his team (Tanya van Graan, Nic Rasenti, and Stevel Marc) signing on for a longer stint. However, the flashbacks featuring moments for characters who have obviously moved on, Corbo and his brother’s (Kai Luke Brummer) involvement with a longtime criminal that creates an entirely separate subplot involving an agent of Europol (Ken Duken), and the inner turmoil in Swann’s (Fraser) family, are not nearly as strong.
