Sleeper show

Here's something: A TV series about a terrorist cell in Los Angeles. An Islamic terrorist cell, yet!

In the series, which debuts on Sunday, Michael Ealy stars as Darwyn, an earnest Muslim undercover FBI agent who infiltrates an L.A. sleeper cell run by the cannily charismatic Farik (Fehr). Alex Nesic , Henri Lubatti and Blake Shields play other members of the cell, of French, Bosnian and American backgrounds, respectively.

The producers are sticklers for detail:

The two were assiduous in recruiting both experts in counterterrorism and Islam and in hiring Muslim writers and crew members. <snip> Experts recruited for the series were taken seriously, which isn't always the norm for a TV series, where the level of technical accuracy often ends at how to hold a firearm. <snip> "Every script went through two or three law- enforcement tech advisers and an Islamic tech adviser, so it took much longer, vetting them through all these sources."

So what about the series itself? No telling how it'll be received, but the subject matter is disturbing:

Ealy admits his time with the experts was sobering. "The fact that the FBI consultants could not tell us for sure if there were real sleeper cells in this country - that they were not permitted to tell - that was pretty sobering," he says. "But the most sobering factor in this show is that they are among us," he adds. "It may seem improbable to think that they are among us and they are assimilating into our culture. If anything, this show demonstrates how they would do it. Talk to anyone who knew one of the 19 (9/11 terrorists), and they say, 'He went bowling.' 'He wore Hawaiians shirts.' 'He seemed the nicest guy.' That's what is terrifying."