'The Endgame' makes the right moves in its cop-criminal chess match

Having enjoyed its share of success with "The Blacklist" and various imitators, NBC treads similar terrain with "The Endgame," whose major wrinkle and upgrade involves casting Morena Baccarin (icily similar to her early "V" role) as a mysterious femme fatale. Slickly made and fast paced, it makes for an enjoyable thriller, although it's a dice roll as to how long that can last.

Like "The Blacklist" (which has lingered past its expiration date), the series opens with Baccarin's Elena Federova, an international arms trafficker with just a tuch of a Natasha Fatale accent and plenty of gleaming menace in her eyes, taken into custody by the FBI. But it's quickly demonstrated that she's playing a much bigger game and several steps ahead of them, with her operatives hitting seven banks around New York City, toward what end remains to be determined.

"You've messed with the wrong woman," Elena informs her captors, later warning them, "Don't poke the tiger with a short stick."