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PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Mireille Enos: private eye and
scorned woman in ‘The Catch’
FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — On the
set of ABC’s new crime-
and-caper drama “The
Catch,” Vesper Vivianne
Ruck called out “Action!”
The take, featuring her
mother, series star Mireille
Enos, clearly met with her
approval and she called
out “Cut!”
A bit later, Vesper ran into
Peter Krause, her mom’s
co-star, and proudly an-
nounced she had just land-
ed her first directing job.
“She’s precocious,” says
Enos of 5-year-old Vesper,
who had made the most
of her visit to the set. “She
wants to take over the
world.”
If that’s true, little Vesper
fits squarely into the ethos
of “The Catch,” which vi-
brates with woman power.
For starters, it joins the fe-
male-fueled portfolio of
Shonda Rhimes and Betsy
Beers, producers of “Grey’s
Anatomy,” ‘’Scandal” and
“How to Get Away with
Murder,” as it inherits the lat- fair’ meets ‘Romeo and
ter series’ time slot, 10 p.m.
EDT on Thursday, a night
whose prime-time sched-
ule Rhimes owns across the
board. (“HTGAWM” has
ended its season.)
Enos, in her role as Los An-
geles’ top private inves-
tigator Alice Vaughan,
continues the ShondaLand
custom of centering its sa-
gas on a woman who’s
strong, resourceful, sexy
and successful, even as she
falls short of superwoman
status: Alice, like Shonda
heroines Meredith Grey
and Olivia Pope, also has a
vulnerable streak.
Spoiler alert: Read no fur-
ther if you want to preserve
the first of what will likely be Catch,” where Enos is as
a long line of hairpin story
twists served up by “The
Catch.”
The thing is, Alice is in love
with a perfect guy, Benja-
min Jones. Played by the
always-appealing Krause
(late of “Parenthood” and
“Six Feet Under”), Ben is
rich, charming and caters
to her every need. After
a year of dating, he has
popped the question.
But in the blink of an eye,
he (along with his false
identity) disappears, con-
ning Alice out of her life
savings in the process.
“Are you ready to play?”
her scamming ex mocks
Alice in a catch-me-if-you-
can parting shot.
“She is a powerful girl on
the planet,” says Enos dur-
ing a phone interview. “She
is feisty and energetic and
playful and loving. And
then this terrible thing hap- Larkin Zouey, with husband
pens that throws her on a
mission: finding the man
who broke her heart.”
Alice, backed with her
firm’s varied but attractive
team, will tackle other cas-
es each week, but finding
Mr. Right-Gone-Wrong will
be Job One.
And here’s yet another
twist: Despite Ben’s lifelong years.” Now filming the
career as a high-end flim-
flammer, it’s possible he re- son’s 10 episodes, Enos has
ally loves her and wishes he
could win her back.
“I like to think of the show
as ‘The Thomas Crown Af-
Juliet,’” says Enos, “with
star-crossed lovers who
are meant to be together
while the world is conspir-
ing against them.”
“The Catch” returns Mireille
(pronounced MEE-RAY) to
the role of detective, but
Alice Vaughan, who favors
Louboutins, is a vastly dif-
ferent brand of gumshoe
from Enos’ previous role,
that of Homicide Detec-
tive Sarah Linden on AMC’s
“The Killing,” where she was
brooding and haunted
as she trudged through a
ghastly murder investiga-
tion soaked in Seattle rain.
By contrast, L.A. sun and
sheen prevail on “The
glammed-up as she was
dressed-down in “The Kill-
ing.” “You gotta keep mix-
ing it up, right?” she laughs Shonda’s shows.
Wednesday 23 March 2016
at the mention of her TV This image released by ABC shows Mireille Enos in a scene from
makeover. “Here in Los “The Catch,” airing Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
Angeles they’re doing this
bang-up job with publicity Associated Press.
on buses and billboards,
and I look up there at my
shiny lips! Usually I only do
dress-up-girl for the red car-
pet, and now I get to do it
every day at work.”
After “The Killing,” the Hous-
ton native, now 40, took
time off to spend with Ves-
per, and then, 20 months
ago, gave birth to a son,
Alan Ruck (“Spin City,”
‘’Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”).
“I wasn’t sure what my next
job would be when I got
back to work, but I was
pretty sure it wouldn’t be
a new Shonda Rhimes ca-
per!” Enos says gratefully.
“That seems like a wonder-
ful place to spend some
seventh of this spring sea-
gotten cozy with her char-
acter. But it required lots of
preparation.
“You should see the box of
books I have in my trailer!”
she crows. “Books about
the CIA. About how to read
body language. ‘Private In-
vestigating for Dummies.’
How to make cool things
out of random household
objects.”
With any luck, she could
also be spending a few
years cat-and-mousing
with Krause, whom she de-
scribes as “a really good
guy who imbues every
character with heart. So
even if he’s playing the
quote-unquote bad guy,
the viewer wants to root
for him.” Even so, he must
never underestimate Al-
ice Vaughan. Nor should
viewers. Like the old saying
goes, hell has no fury like a
woman scorned. And it’s
never more fun to watch
the results than on one of