Believe

Plot

Bo is a young girl who was born with special supernatural abilities that she could not control. As these powers started evolving, the people who were protecting her were forced to turn to an outsider for help. This led them to William Tate, a wrongfully convicted death-row inmate, whom they break out of prison. Although he is reluctant to take on the role as her protector, the two eventually form a bond that guide them to helping each other, as well as others, while staying one step ahead of the evil forces that want the girl.

Cast and characters

Main

Jake McLaughlin as William Tate, Jr. – Originally a death row inmate in a national security prison, Tate is weathered and jaded from seven years of imprisonment and the painful loss of his soul mate Nina Adams (not knowing Skouras forced her to end their relationship). Tate has recurring anger problems, leading to a long history of violence and brushes with the law. Minutes before his execution for two counts of felony murder (of which he claims he is innocent, something no one ever believed, having been framed by his friends during a robbery), Winter (disguised as a priest) visits him and offers a chance at freedom if he agrees to protect Bo. Tate reluctantly agrees to accept Winter's assistance, and later his employment offer as Bo's protector. Originally he is unaware that he is actually Bo's father (a fact known by Winter's team, the Orchestra Project and the FBI), but Winter is later encouraged by Bo to tell him – while the news sounds unbelievable, he senses he somehow knew all along. Afterwards, he becomes a more kind and supportive parent figure.

Johnny Sequoyah as Bo Adams – An extraordinarily gifted girl with the power to change the world. She was one of Winter's most promising subjects, born and raised at Orchestra and displaying extraordinary psychic and telekinetic powers inherited from her mother, Nina. To the government, Bo's existence is highly classified government property and is officially a national defense priority. Bo herself is regarded as a federal asset and ward of the U.S. government, with no family. Winter is the only person Bo knows she can trust, and also she considers his team the closest thing to a family she has, but she steadily develops a bond with Tate after he repeatedly risks his life and freedom for her. Originally, she was unaware that Tate is her father, although later correctly guesses, and accepts, the truth.

Jamie Chung as Janice Channing – Winter's second in command and an Orchestra fugitive. Dedicated, tough and strong-willed, Channing is devoted to protecting Bo. She frequently clashes with Tate, openly doubting his loyalty and feels the arrangement for him to act as Bo's protector is never going to work – Channing sees herself as a mother figure to Bo, and believes she would be better at protecting the child, although later accepts Tate as a worthy parent figure. According to her background, she is a combat-trained fighter who was Orchestra's head of security – she worked at the Orchestra Campus for Skouras for several years, hired to effectively keep Bo captive. Later she deployed as an operative to recover Bo, although she instead turned Channing against Skouras after she had healed the injuries Channing sustained trying to capture her.

Recurring

Juri Henley-Cohn as Luke Hayden – One of Winter's team and an Orchestra fugitive. Hayden later becomes disillusioned with the mission to protect Bo after the deaths of four of the ten team members, and ultimately feels he could not make the necessary sacrifices. He abandons the team, and is arrested by the FBI shortly after. Ferrell turns Hayden to apparently give up Winter's command center in New York, only for Ferrell's team to find it deserted.

Richard Hollis as Robert Gilman – One of Winter's team and an Orchestra fugitive.

Katie McClellan as Lilah Leeds – One of Winter's team and an Orchestra fugitive. She is a technology specialist, and was on the team that developed Orchestra's prototype telepathic tracking computer.

Kerry Condon as Dr. Zoe Boyle – Orchestra's head of research and Winter's replacement, Zoe is Skouras's head researcher and loyal confidant at Orchestra, who runs the research program following Winter's departure – working to continue experiments with the other talented telepaths at the facility. Zoe helped Winter raise Bo, and cares about her very deeply. After Winter's departure, Zoe wants Bo returned home to Orchestra (primarily due to the possibility that Bo's health could degrade due to her abilities), seeing her as one of a kind and vulnerable in the outside world. Nevertheless, Bo remains the common ground that allows Winter and Zoe to trust each other - she is aware that Winter took Bo as the military would use her as a weapon, and also isn't comfortable with Skouras's excessive experimentation methods. In no position to challenge his authority, Zoe secretly acts as Winter's mole inside the Orchestra Campus, until she is exposed to Skouras by Dani, another test subject. Skouras has Dani mentally erase all of Zoe's memories of Bo and Orchestra.

Arian Moayed as Corey – A technology specialist working at Orchestra. He is completely loyal to Skouras.

Erik LaRay Harvey as Marcus Krakauer – A mercenary on loan from the CIA, and a tracker not on the FBI's radar, who is rumored to be psychotic. He is hired by Skouras as an operative to track down Bo and Tate.

Nick Tarabay as Niko Zepeda – Skouras's henchman working at Orchestra.

Development and production

The series first appeared as part of NBC's development slate in September 2012. In January 2013, NBC green-lit production of a pilot episode. On May 12, 2013, the series was placed on the network's 2013–14 schedule, where it was expected to debut after the 2014 Winter Olympics.

On July 17, 2013, co-creator and executive producer Mark Friedman departed the series. Cuarón stayed on board as executive producer alongside J.J. Abrams. Friedman was ultimately succeeded by Dave Erickson. A few months later, in December, Erickson also stepped down as executive producer/showrunner and was replaced by Jonas Pate, who was serving as a co-executive producer and series director. Pate ran the day-to-day production of the series along with Hans Tobeason, who served as "on-set" producer in New York, where filming took place. To allow a smoother transition for the new showrunners and accommodate script re-writes, production went on hiatus from December 20 to January 6, 2014.

Every scene in the pilot episode is a long take (One of Cuaron's trademarks), but that format was dropped beginning with the second episode.

Casting

McLaughlin (Tate) was the first regular to be cast in February 2013, followed by Lindo (Winter), Sienna Guillory, Chung (Channing) and ten-year-old newcomer Sequoyah (Bo). MacLachlan was added in March 2013 as was Arian Moayed. In June 2013, Guillory was dropped from the series after the pilot, with producers choosing not to continue with her character, professional hit-woman Moore, going forward. Moayed, whose character Corey was originally conceived to be Moore's right-hand man, was quietly dropped as a series regular after the second episode.

Reception

Critical reception

Believe has received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has an approval rating of 39% based on 38 critics, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Haphazardly crafted, Believe has moments of impressive visuals, but its story is merely passable." On Metacritic, it holds an average score of 55 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Broadcast

The series premiered in the UK on the Watch channel on March 27, 2014. It airs in Canada on the CTV network, and in Latin America on the Warner Channel. It premiered in Australia on the Nine Network on April 15, 2015.