Pretender is a genius with the ability to become anyone he wants to be. A clandestine research organization known as The Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod (Weiss) in 1963 in order to use him for their own nefarious purpose, until one day their Pretender ran away.
The Pretender 2001 is an original movie that picks up where the final cliffhanger of the canceled series left off. Jarod, Miss Parker (Parker) and Ethan (Tyler Christopher) have narrowly escaped serious injury after a fiery explosion.
Miss Parker finds herself back at The Centre suffering from visions and trying to understand the "inner sense" she has begun to develop. Her father is missing, and she believes Mr. Lyle (Jamie Denton) might know something about his disappearance. Sydney (Patrick Bauchau) and Broots (Jon Gries) are back on the case to help her.
Meanwhile, Jarod and Ethan are safe, but a news story sends Jarod on a dangerous new Pretend. As he infiltrates the NSA, Jarod finds himself up against the Chameleon, a deranged genius who also has the ability to pretend to be anyone he wants to be. Jarod finds he must relive the past and his escape from The Centre if he is to help capture this evil pretender. Unfortunately for Jarod, the Chameleon knows who and what Jarod is, and he may know just how to beat Jarod at his own game.
All secrets, no answers
The Pretender 2001 does an effective job at reviving from the ashes the story left by NBC when the series was canceled with a terrible cliffhanger that left fans truly hanging in the worst possible way. Without missing a beat, all the major characters are back to continue the intrigue, and the Pretender "mythology" as the story picks up as though we never left it.
While this is a must see for Pretender fans, those not already involved in the show may have trouble keeping up with the tangled web that's woven around the conspiracies in The Centre. The strength of the series was always the talented cast, their strong and original characterizations and the clever way Jarod got even with the bad guys. The weakness was the endless conspiracies, where tiny clues led to answers that only created more questions.
Unfortunately, the very nature of The Pretender 2001 movie forces it to focus on the conspiracies, hoping viewers will come back for a second dose of unanswered questions when TNT airs its second Pretender movie in the spring. The big revelation--how Jarod got out of the Centre--ends up being a bit of a disappointment, and the writing still has the occasional bits of sloppy storytelling that the series suffered from. (Miss Parker would never just lay her gun down carelessly so a bad guy could get it.)
Still, Pretender fans will not be disappointed in the way in which their characters have been brought back to life. TNT has been running episodes of the Pretender series, and before the movie will offer a Countdown to The Pretender Marathon featuring the cliffhanger from the final series. No additional original movies are planned, but that may change depending on ratings.
