Spy Fiction television show. Manchurian Agent Edward Albright (Christian Slater) allowed his agency to create a Split Personality in his head at the age of 19. Edward was officially dead, while "Henry Spivey" existed, married, had two kids and worked a normal job. Every time Henry goes on a business trip, Edward is revived, where he lives the secret agent lifestyle, then he "goes back to sleep", neither the wiser. The place where Henry works maintains more than one Manchurian Agent with a double lifestyle.
Things get tricky when the programming appears to break down and Henry awakens in the middle of Edward's secret mission. He eventually finds out that he's just a creation and Edward is the real thing.
My Own Worst Enemy aired on NBC for nine episodes beginning 13 October 2008. It was officially cancelled after episode 4.
Examples of:
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Neither Edward nor Henry share memories while the other is in control.
- Bed Trick: A variation, since they're in the same body (and it's Edward's body anyway). At times, Edward has sex with Henry's wife, with her later thanking Henry for an amazing night. Henry is, at worst, slightly annoyed with Edward for that. The first time was payback for Henry taking one of Edward's cars for a drive.
- The Big Board: The briefing room monitor.
- Character Blog: Okay, not exactly a blog, but the Dangerous Workplace has a website.
- Cliffhanger: The series ends on a particularly nasty set of cliffhangers that will likely never be resolved. The glitch that allowed Henry to wake up during Edward's missions is ready to be fixed, and Henry is ready to be more or less "put to sleep" for good, though he's reluctant to do so. On their way to fix the glitch, the programmer that will carry it out is suddenly revealed to be dead, and the agency itself goes into a blackout. All of this on top of Raymond's wife catching him murdering someone. Doesn't that just suck.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: JANUS' primary cover is that of AJ Sun, a financial consulting company, and their HQ under its skyscraper. This is additionally subverted in the fact that JANUS' Manchurian Agents don't follow that cover while on missions, only referring themselves to other authorities as "US Intelligence".
- Da Chief: Mavis to Edward/Henry, Trumbull to Mavis
- Elaborate Underground Base: and a finely furnished one, at that.
- Everything Is Online: Traffic cams, security footage, voicemails...
- Failed Future Forecast: Apparently in the MOWE-verse, the KGB is alive and well despite the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- First-Name Basis Henry, Mavis (Heller), Tony, Raymond
- Fun with Acronyms: or in this case, anagrams. AJ Sun = JANUS
- Gollum Made Me Do It
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Henry doesn't smoke, but Edward does.
- Government Agency of Fiction: JANUS
- Hyde Plays Jekyll: With the twist that Jekyll also has to play Hyde at times.
- I Have Your Wife: naturally, or at least the family is threatened
- In Medias Res: Practically all of the episode openings.
- Jekyll & Hyde (the entire plot of the show) and Meaningful Name (Edward Hyde and Henry Jekyll. One might argue that "Spivey" is a hint towards spying as well.) In a rather clever twist on the trope, the "Hyde" personality is the original and the "Jekyll" personality is an artificial construct.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In the case of terminating an operative, all other instances it's Laser Guided Memories.
- Last-Name Basis: (Alistair) Trumbull, Dr. (Norah) Skinner
- Let's Have Another Baby: Henry and Mary.
- Meaningful Name: JANUS, the super-secret spy organization that the Edward personality works for, is a reference to the ancient Roman god Janus, who had two faces.
- The Men in Black: Very much so to civilians and other agencies, even if they don't dress the part.
- No Name Given: Those two Systems Management guys seen flanking Dr. Skinner.
- Oddly Small Organization: While it's implied that JANUS has other locations and offices, the only people ever seen working are Mavis, Tony, Edward, Raymond, Dr. Skinner and those guys from Systems Management. The only personification of a higher official seen is Trumbull.
- Primal Fear: The first episode has Henry learning that he is a split personality and none of his memories are real, finding out the hard way when he 'wakes up' in the middle of Russia about to assassinate someone. It's punctuated by going through Edward's personal effects and seeing his name on every page.
- Product Placement: Obvious in the case of Henry's Traverse and Edward's Camaro, mostly subtle with AJ Sun/JANUS' Dell setups.
- Spell My Name With An S: JANUS is pronounced in-show as jay-nuss as opposed to the more common jah-nuss.
- Sigil Spam: Slightly subverted in the fact that JANUS is never given an insignia, but a recurring hexagon motif is associated with them in too many places to count from AJ Sun's helipad to the base's ceiling and briefing desk.
- Talking to Themself: Via video and writing on the hand.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Henry has bouts of dealing with this in the early episodes.
- Wall of Weapons: Conveniently stashed in Edward's hideout.
- Viewer-Friendly Interface: The briefing room monitor, Tony's "billion dollar mainframe" and the memory machine.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go and I Lied (of course)
