Reviews

There's some nice CGI in the first five minutes of this new show. I won't even spoil the plot by elaborating. So, basically, this a fever dream of all previous inmate on the run dramas. There's usually a flawed but brilliant ex-cop dragged back into service, and there is one here.

Instead I'll point out the parts in the first two episodes which irritated me due to their idiocy.

1. An FBI agent enters a room and doesn't clear it before opening an animal cage. Nope.

2. An FBI agent lets an accessory to a crime roam around a house while they wander off to find the main bad guy. Nope

3. When you take a call, don't turn your back on the other person in the room. Or it makes you look stupid. And don't talk about the reason the person behind you is probably going to use to kill you. Double nope.

4. Don't have characters in your show that work for the CIA, but share all the secrets they know 5 minutes into the show because the other lead shouts at them. Nope-ity nope nope.

5. Don't have characters say that they are deliberately keeping secrets from the president. I'm pretty sure that anyone found doing this would be in deep rose fertilizer.

6. IF the US really had a place like the one in the show, they wouldn't need GTMO in Cuba.

Apart from that it was well written. Wasn't it? NOPE.

I'll get to "The Lisp" later.

There will be comparisons with "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street Blues", but that's OK. I for one am all Law and Ordered out, so a return to a purely procedural Big Apple based cop show is welcomed.

Every character seems well rounded, from the first episode the cast feel like an ensemble, unlike in most pilots where the cast seem to be having difficulty finding their feet.

The Deputy Inspector (Amanda Warren) is nicely played as a woman who diplomatically strives to bring modern policing to her station, while battling a self serving union and mayor. Her aide is a fiercely loyal, walking encyclopedia of tedious renown.

On her side is the softly spoken police chief, (Jimmy Smits), who tries to balance his own ambitions with the progressive attitude of his subordinate.

Then there's the other officers, who neatly (and not overly) represent a nicely varied bunch. There's the rich kid struggling to prove himself as a rookie cop. His cop partner is a veteran beat cop who has seen it all.

There's also a chalk and cheese partnership of a cop who always strives for the rules paired with a cop constantly teetering on the brink of corruption.

The other rookie cop rounds out the cast with her slightly naive enthusiasm.

Now, as promised, The Lisp.

Jimmy Smits is a fine actor, he even made The Tommyknockers miniseries worth watching. In this he decided at the outset to give his character a lisp. I know that I shouldn't be a downer on a speech impediment, but since Smits doesn't have such a theatrical lisp it bugs me.

Someone else must have thought so because, seemingly over the Christmas break, it's all fixed. Perhaps Santa brought the Chief some elocution lessons and possibly a palate shaping procedure.

I suspect that real reason was initially they wrote the character as a fay stereotype, then changed their minds so Smits could have a cis relationship. Anyway the mystery continues to intrigue.

Supernatural had two great lead characters, but the actual characterisation didn't need to be much more than a extension of the actors own personalty.

And then we have this silliness.

Jared seems to have an inability to have the required poker face for a law enforcement part, as far as I understand the prerequisites for such a role. He constantly, and I mean in every scene he is in for the duration, gurns. He gurns happily when he is jolly, scowls gurnily when he is irritated and gurns guiltily when trying to keep a secret.

Is the character afflicted with some sort of tourettes? Is Jared chewing some really sour and nasty baccy? Has a demon possessed his lower jaw? Is Jared trying to reinvent Chuck Norris' Walker as Forrest Gump?

I suspect that the other actors in this show are so po faced as to prevent them from corpsing due to Jared's ridiculous performance. Walker comes across as an idiot with no control over his face. How anyone is fooled by his undercover antics is a mystery.