The Enemy Within Is the "Spy Thriller Enemy What?! No! Stop!" Show You've Been Craving

It's hard to come up with three words to describe this Jennifer Carpenter-starring show, apparently.

By Lauren Piester Feb 25, 2019 7:28 PMTags
Watch: "The Enemy Within" Stars Describe Show in 3 Words

The Enemy Within debuts tonight on NBC, and it's got a lot going on. 

Jennifer Carpenter plays Erica Shepherd, the former director of the CIA who turned out to be a huge traitor. She was imprisoned, but now she's back in play because  FBI agent Will (Morris Chestnut) needs her help to catch a new terrorist. 

Cassandra Freeman and Raza Jaffrey play fellow FBI agents Jaqueline and Ali, and they weren't all that prepared when E!'s Erin Lim asked them to describe the show in three words at NBC's midseason press day.

"Spy, Thriller..." 

"Enemy?" 

"Within." 

"What?! No! Stop!"

Don't you feel like you understand this show perfectly now? 

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Allow Freeman to elaborate a little more. 

"You start to wonder, who's a better liar? And the woman who's like the greatest traitor in American history is played by Jennifer Carpenter, and you watch her every week and you're like, can I trust her? Oh, no. Oh, yes. That's the show basically." 

Freeman did not watch Carpenter when she was on Dexter because "I was scared of Dexter," but she wants you to know that Jennifer "acts her face off," which is 100% true. Jennifer Carpenter's performance is what makes this show, and it's creepy as hell...even if it's not quite to the level of creepery as Dexter. 

Watch the video above for more from Jaffrey and Freeman. 

The Enemy Within premieres tonight at 10 p.m. after the season premiere of The Voice on NBC. 

E! and NBC are both part of the NBC Universal family.