The series was cancelled by CBS after just one season, on May 10, 2014, only a few months after its January 7, 2014 premiere.

The show's plot is said to have been inspired by the novel Phoenix Island by John Dixon, though some critics expressed reservations about this claimed connection.

In episode 13, it was revealed that the project name 'Clockwork' was based on the 1879 short story 'The Ablest Man in the World' by Edward Page Mitchell, about a mute, mentally handicapped man whose brain is replaced by a scientist with a clockwork device to turn him into Russia's answer to Napoleon.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an aggregate score of only 38% based on 13 positive and 21 negative critic reviews, with the consensus criticizing corny dialogue and overblown violence.

The character Mei Chen was recast between the pilot and the series, with Grace Huang playing the role in the pilot before Faye Kingslee took over.