Shades of Blue (TV Series) Pilot (2016) User Reviews

How You Can Stretch One Season?

[ShelbyTMItchell · 7/10 · 9 January 2016]

I mean it is a good show despite not being a J-Lo fan. But how can you stretch one season? As really the show will have to work it's magic with great actors like Ray Liotta, who plays the corrupt head where J-Lo is a cop and Drea De Matteo late of the Sopranos.

She is Harlee, a single mother with a gifted daughter and does bribes and other things in NY. But when she gets busted in an undercover sting operation, Warren Kole who will play her FBI handler and potential love interest, will give her full immunity if she rats out her crew.

Plus he uses her daughter, a gifted musician in an exclusive school hence where J-Lo gets her bribes for her daughter to attend.

J-Lo is caught between being good or remaining loyal to Liotta, who steals the show and only reason to watch.

Question is how can you stretch this from one season? It will have to do with the writing and the acting. Liotta is the only reason to watch.

Shades of becoming a good crime/drama television series

[Ed-Shullivan · 9/10 · 8 January 2016]

As momma always said... when you tell the truth you can always repeat the same story without repercussions since you don't have to remember any of the lies you may have otherwise told. In Shades of Blue you have an entire team of a police division involved in corruption. The two lead characters on this corrupt police team are Harlee Santos (played by super star Jennifer Lopez) who is a single mom raising her 16 year old daughter. Her daughter Cristina Santos (played by Sarah Jeffery) who is a cellist prodigy will require a substantial financial contribution to enrol in a private school for music prodigies. This is the main reason that mom and police woman Harlee Santos is part of a corrupt team of police officers. The team leader is Detective Matt Wozniak, played superbly by the legendary crime genre star Ray Liotta. Who can forget Ray's memorable performances in crime films such as Goodfellas, Narc, Identity and/or Cop Land. Ray has always been one of my guaranteed good performance actors and he is perfect for the part of the corrupt team leader Matt Wozniak.

With only the first episode televised at the time of my review it is a tad premature to evaluate how the main characters roles will evolve, and if the television series writers will lean more in the direction of a television crime series like The Shield, or with more of a strategic crime series as the multiple Emmy winning series The Wire.

I will say though that acquiring an elite director for the pilot series such as the seasoned director and producer Barry Levinson has kick started this series on a high note. Director Levinson has ensured we understand that Harlee Santos is a very busy cop and mom. Within the first 60 minutes in no particular order, we witness Harlee single handedly run down and handcuff a very quick and agile street thug, she sets up an alibi for a rookie cop who kills a low life drug dealer without thinking first, she deliberately smashes her daughters car up to back up an earlier alibi she created (remember what momma said about lies versus telling the truth?) for Detective Matt Wozniak, gets caught by the FBI trying to take a bribe form a bookie (who is an FBI agent) and Harlee still finds time to work out in a boxing gym both in and out of the ring with her boy toy trainer boyfriend (no surprise here). Whewww, Harlee accomplished all that in less than 60 minutes.

So we have a team of corrupt cops trying to do their job of protecting the good citizens of New York City and at the same time make a few bucks off the backs of the bad guys by skimming a little kick back in protection money. We have the FBI closing in on this team of corrupt cops who are now under surveillance, and we have the corrupt team leader Matt Wozniak trying to figure out who the snitch is in his own unit before the FBI closes in on them all and breaks up this happy little family of corrupt cops.

There is a lot going on in Shades Of Blue and I remain optimistic that with this stellar cast of Grade 1 movie and television stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Ray Liotta, Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos), Warren Kole and Lolita Davidovich the series will have a strong first season performance. Mrs Shullivan and I were impressed with the pilot episode. So far I will give the series a positive 9 out of 10 rating for the stellar cast, great directing and rich cinematography for a television crime/drama series pilot.

Holding my breath

[gjenevieve · 9/10 · 8 January 2016]

I immediately put this show on my list of shows to watch because of Ray Liotta. I am a big fan of his.

Throughout the show there were several times where I caught myself actually holding my breath. There were some really tense moments throughout this episode. I hope that they can keep up with that kind of tension in future episodes.It really made this show quite exciting to watch.

So far, I like the way the relationship between Lt. Wozniak (Ray Liotta) and Detective Santos (Jennifer Lopez) is playing out. I am looking forward to how they are going to expand the characters and the storyline.

The premise of the show is that Santos ends up being coerced into working for the FBI to help them take down the corrupt team (which she is a part of). One of the main people they are trying to take down is Lt. Wozniak. I am trying to figure out how they are going to keep this show going for more than one season. I am really hoping they can do so since I am wanting to continue to watch the great actor Ray Liotta.

Soudns interesting

[superangelofglory · 10/10 · 15 January 2016]

Damn, when it comes to police dramas, I thought I've seen them all. But this came as a surprise for me. I mean, there are a lot of movies about dirty cops, sure, and you see dirty cops in many TV shows as well, I agree, but seeing a show where the main character is a dirty cop is something new, at least for me. Also, I have to say the show's timing with reality is also pretty interesting, given the heated debate taking place in the United States during the last couple of years regarding the conduct of certain police officers (true, the debate is about the so called "trigger-happy" policemen, not about the police corruption). And it is nice to see Jennifer Lopez as a policewoman once again, after "Angel Eyes", now in a whole different perspective. I am very very curious to see how they'll develop this show!