Two new TV shows: Undercover, and the partially dead

There's something inherently fascinating about the double life undercover cops lead. To serve justice, they must lie and deceive. To further the good, they must manipulate and betray people who have come to count on them as friends, allies, even lovers.

USA Network makes a strong foray into that shadow world with Graceland, a slick, cinematic, and addictive thriller about undercover feds fighting crime in Southern California. It premieres Thursday with a 12-episode first season.

Graceland is one of two exciting new dramas premiering Thursday, including In the Flesh, a surreal, wickedly funny, and deeply moving zombie miniseries on BBC America.

Created by Jeff Eastin, the master craftsman behind USA's White Collar and inspired by a true story, Graceland is set at a gorgeous mansion on the beach seized from an Elvis-obsessed drug dealer. Instead of selling it, the feds decide to use the pad as a group house for a team of undercover agents drawn from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The pilot leads us into this strange world through Mike Warren (Broadway actor Aaron Tveit), a brilliant new agent fresh out of Quantico. He's a golden boy whom J. Edgar Hoover would have adored, but his plan to fast-track himself to the top of FBI management is derailed when he's sent to Graceland to be mentored by legendary FBI master agent Paul Briggs.

A supercool operator played with aplomb by Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me), Briggs came out of the academy a decade earlier every bit as brilliant, eager, and button-down as Mike. But after a mysterious leave of absence, he has become an unknowable unknown, a Zen guru who still gets the job done, but who rubs the FBI brass the wrong way.

It makes us wonder: Was Mike cherry-picked from the FBI Academy to spy on Briggs? Does that mean Briggs is dirty?

Tveit and Sunjata are brilliantly backed by an ensemble cast featuring Vanessa Ferlito (CSI: New York), Manny Montana (Chicago Code), Brandon Jay McLaren (The Killing), and child actor turned competitive gymnast turned actor Paige Arkin.

Each week, they target drug dealers and gunrunners while trying hard to reconcile their cover identities with their inner lives. The group has great chemistry, and it translates nicely on screen.

Graceland has echoes of two terrific, if short-lived, undercover-cop shows, Patrick Swayze's The Beast and TNT's Dark Blue. It can't be accused of being groundbreaking or terribly original, yet it works remarkably well.

It goes down like a smooth goblet of (blended) scotch.

BBC America gives the zombie genre a welcome twist with In the Flesh, a miniseries that runs on three consecutive nights beginning Thursday.

A satire with a serious, dramatic message, In the Flesh is a mature, emotionally nuanced, and exquisitely crafted drama, set four years after an apocalyptic event called the Rising led to the resurrection of 140,000 recently deceased folks across Britain, hungry for human flesh.

Instead of showing the havoc, In the Flesh examines its aftereffects. The zombies have either been eradicated or cured, thanks to the National Health Service. Relabeled Partially Deceased Syndrome sufferers, they are stuffed full of serum and sent back home.

Things don't go so smoothly for one returnee, Kieren "Ren" Walker (Luke Newberry), a gay teen from a small rural town who is met with distrust and hatred when he returns home.

In the Flesh, which stars Kenneth Cranham as the town's hate-mongering priest, Steve Evets as a gun-toting zombie killer, and David Walmsley as his closeted zombie son, strikes a remarkable balance between comedy and tragedy as it explores the deep roots of prejudice, whether it's aimed at immigrants, gays and lesbians - or the partially dead.

Premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday on USA Network.

In the Flesh

10 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday on BBC America.

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