This 4-Season Action Series Hides a Dark Conspiracy Inside a Weekly Procedural

2 hours ago 1

Close up of Michael T. Weiss as Jarod in The Pretender.

Published Jan 25, 2026, 7:20 AM EST

Lloyd 'Happy Trails' Farley: the man, the myth, the legend. What can be said about this amazing - and humble - man that hasn't been said before? Or, more accurately, what can be said in public? Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Lloyd is a master of puns and a humorist, who has authored one pun book to date - Pun and Grimeish Mint - and is working on a second. His time with Collider has allowed Lloyd's passion for writing to explode, with nearly 1,000 articles to his name that have been published on the site, with his favorite articles being the ones that allow for his sense of humor to shine. Lloyd also holds fast to the belief that all of life's problems can be answered by The Simpsons, Star Wars, and/or The Lion King. You can read more about Lloyd on his website, or follow his Facebook page and join the Llama Llegion. Happy trails!

The "kid who unknowingly grows up in an evil corporation" TV show is a genre unto itself, with shows like Wayward Pines', Emergence, Dark Angel, and Stranger Things heavily relying on that premise. For all intents and purposes, they follow a similar formula, where a child, typically with some sort of gift — either naturally or thrust upon them — grows up and comes to realize that their home, the only one they've ever known, is actually some sort of entity that is using their gifts for malicious purposes.

They escape, and spend the rest of the series avoiding recapture by said entity, who perpetually falls just short of catching them. It takes something special for a series to separate itself from the herd, but, for four seasons, The Pretender was one such series: a sci-fi action procedural with a dark conspiracy arc that hangs over it from start to finish.

Jarod Stays One Step Ahead in 'The Pretender'

Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) is a naval officer in The Pretender.

The Pretender centers on Jarod (Michael T. Weiss), who, as a five-year-old child, is kidnapped by a corporation known as the Centre. Jarod is a prodigy and is raised as a "Pretender," an impostor able to assume the identity of any member of any profession seamlessly, mastering the skills of the trade quickly. Jarod is assigned to the care of Sydney (Patrick Bauchau), a Centre psychiatrist and the only father figure Jarod knows, after being told his parents died in a plane crash.

As he grows up, Sydney tests his genius by giving him complex simulations to work through, and Jarod learns that his responses to the simulations are being carried out in the real world for evil purposes, like "South Pacific simulation #118," used to blow up a ship with 133 people on board, or the Outbreak simulation, directly used to infect and kill 46 people with the Ebola virus. The realization weighs heavily on Jarod, who feels responsible, and he escapes from the Centre, intent on protecting and helping the innocent.

Ah, but lest we forget the rules of the trope: it isn't as easy as simply walking away. The Centre wants Jarod back, and to that end, they put together a team consisting of Sydney, computer expert Broots (Jon Gries), and "Miss Parker" (Andrea Parker) who, like Jarod, was raised in the Centre. It's a team at war with themselves, with Sydney looking to retrieve Jarod safely, feeling a divided loyalty to Jarod and to the Centre, while Miss Parker has a personal stake in recapturing Jarod, being promised that if he's brought back in, "preferably" alive, she would be allowed to leave the Centre. It sets up a dynamic where Sydney will directly sabotage Miss Parker's use of lethal methods to bring in Jarod, earning her ire for being unwilling to choose a side.

Jarod Delivers Poetic Justice and Uncovers Secrets in 'The Pretender'

Few things are as disparate as the Saw movie franchise and the sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but The Pretender manages to bridge the two to create something truly unique. Week after week, Jarod targets criminals who have thus far evaded the law, using his intellect to uncover the truth about them, and his skills as a Pretender to assume an identity that brings him into contact. Then, in true Saw-like fashion, he lures the criminals into a poetically just set-up, always staged to mirror the harm they've inflicted on others and bringing them to a forced confession.

Is Jamie Really Who He Claims To Be on ‘Found’?

Jamie's return feels a bit too strange, considering he's been missing for so long.

For example, in "Flyer," Jarod learns the death of an Air Force lieutenant is due to a new computer system from a greedy defense contractor, so he flies a plane with the man on board, ejecting just before crashing, and exposing the truth. But like the latter, The Pretender remembers what it would be like for someone who grew up in isolation when confronted by the simple joys of life, things like bubblegum, ice cream, and a Slinky. Jarod approaches these things with childlike awe and wonder, an aspect that Weiss keeps grounded.

'The Pretender' Is Filled With Twists and Big Reveals Until the End

Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) and Martha (Marjorie Monaghan) in the Coast Guard in The Pretender episode "Every Picture Tells a Story."

As the action series progresses, Jarod uncovers more of the dark truths about the Centre as he searches for who he was before being taken all those years ago, complicated by the deluge of untruths they've told him. But the dark conspiracies of the Centre aren't limited to Jarod alone. They touch everyone... including those chasing him. Jarod sends Miss Parker proof that the Centre lied to her about many things as well, and while she refuses to abandon her loyalty to the Centre outright, it forces her to reevaluate just who she is, and who she was. Sydney, meanwhile, discovers what it is the organization has actually done to Jarod, the other Pretender children, and even his own twin brother, among other revelations that the Centre withheld from him that could jeopardize the Pretender Project if he knew.

The Pretender followed Jarod as he meted out karmic justice to those who'd wronged others week after week, while reveling in the mundane things life has to offer after being isolated from society for the better part of his life. And, over the course of four seasons and two made-for-TV movies, Jarod continued to unlock the many secrets of the Centre, and the dark truths that affected him and many others.

The Pretender

Release Date 1996 - 2000-00-00

Directors James Whitmore Jr., Terrence O'Hara, Chuck Bowman, Scott Lautanen, Rodney Charters, Michael Lange, Michael Zinberg, Joe Napolitano, Vern Gillum, Ian Toynton, Krishna Rao, Thomas J. Wright, Rick Wallace, Anson Williams, Michael T. Weiss, Charles Siebert, Jim Charleston, Jesús Salvador Treviño, Gabrielle Beaumont, David Jackson

Read Entire Article