(S01E01) ABC's quirky new crime procedural is not the brilliant blend of drama and absurd comedy the network might want it to be, but it does have a few good things going for it. First, there's the great cast. It's hard to pick a favorite among these talented TV vets, but series star Amber Tamblyn is genuine and beleiveable as Casey Shraeger, a detective working to weed out corruption in a kooky NYPD homicide unit, one of her first grown-up roles. Jeremy Renner, adding some Nathan Fillion-esque goofiness to his all-around good guy persona, is a good fit for Detective Jason Walsh, Tamblyn's possibly duplicitous partner.
I'm convinced that Lost's Harold Perrineau can do almost anything, even turn a one-note character like Detective Leo Banks, who's obsessed with the idea that he'll die at the age of 42, into something special. Perrineau didn't exactly get the best material here, but he and partner Adam Goldberg, playing a nervous depressive who is actually dying, managed to elevate their short scenes together.
Another thing The Unusuals has going for it is an intriguing mystery. The ep started with Casey getting recruited to the Second Precinct to fill the shoes of Det. Burt Kowalski, who was seemingly killed on the job. She teamed up with Walsh, Kowalski's former partner, to investigate the murder. The investigation lead to some, er, unusual findings, including Kowalski's burned down storage locker full of revealing case files on his co-workers.
Casey's new boss Sgt. Brown (Terry Kinney) revealed that he hired her to root out the corrupt cops in his department. We learned that some among this zany team of investigators are not who they say they are, and that they're all keeping big secrets. The final scene even cast suspicion on Walsh, the only male character who seemed sane enough to relate to Casey.
The mystery and strong performances might be enough to hook some viewers, but the show's odd mixture of absurdity and standard police drama isn't for everyone. The premiere was loaded with too much contrived quirkiness (a perp dressed as a hot dog, twin grandmas getting booked, a clueless detective who constantly refers to himself in the third person). Some of the gags hit (the odd dispatch calls were funny), but most of them seemed out of place, inorganic or, at worse, stolen from the last few years of Night Court.
And speaking of stealing, that copy machine/lie detector scene worked a lot better on The Wire.
This first episode moved along at a confident and rapid pace, but the tone was all over the place. It was diverting at best, artificial and labored at worst. It looks like ABC might have greenlit another oddball cop show that will likely get yanked before its mysteries are revealed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-09-2009 @ 12:02PM
La-Di-Dah said...
This pilot (which I was looking forward to) was meh for me. Maybe it straddled bad timing and not enough policing hmmph. Maybe it's because I found it hard to care for the whacko characters. I am going to be seeing if they improve much in the next few episodes, but otherwise, I will be nodding off.
On a side note:
Incidentally, I watched the pilot of Southland on the same night, and that grabbed me much more than this did. Yes, it might be cliche and done before, like the tvsquad reviewer suggested, but all the other police procedurals (except CSI, which I am tired of) are almost kinda before my time, so the cliches may be newer to me, and had more impact. But I understand what the reviewer meant: I was around for the very beginnings of ER, so if an upstart comes along and tries to fake it, I would say it needed to be schooled too.
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4-13-2009 @ 3:06PM
Karin said...
I liked it. Something different. I'm watching, and giving it a chance. I like the cast, and there was plenty to think about. You guys expect perfection right out of the box. Sheesh!!
4-09-2009 @ 12:29PM
Chas Winterbottom said...
I could not hang with this show.
What with all it's wackiness I felt like I was watching a show geared torward exasperated tourists who like to say "jeesh, only in New York".
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4-09-2009 @ 12:31PM
Jesse said...
Glad I wasn't the only one that was catching the Nathan Fillion vibe off Jeremy Renner. I was trying to figure out where I've seen him before and he was in 28 Weeks Later and an episode of house last year which explains it.
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4-09-2009 @ 12:41PM
chaosrain said...
Keep in mind that this is the pilot. I suspect there will be a big twist in this show that will take a few episodes to resolve. Remember the cop who didn't get hit by any buckshot even though the shot was aimed directly at him? He's going to turn out to have some odd super power...just like the other cops in that precinct (that's what the dead cop was investigating).
I think that once the formula of oddball, superhero cops takes hold, the show will make a lot more sense and be much more engaging.
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4-09-2009 @ 1:05PM
Sarah said...
I think the acting was great (totally with you on what you said about Perrineau). The story was okay, but I do like the fresh take on weeding out crooked cops and it looks like Casey will have an intriguing backstory as to why she became a cop. This show has potential in my opinion.
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4-09-2009 @ 1:32PM
buffaloedan1 said...
the girl detective looked waaaaay too young for her role. i thought the pilot was so so
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4-09-2009 @ 1:36PM
Jimmy said...
There was nothing spectacular about this episode but I'm interested. It nice to see Amber Tamblyn playing something other than the girl with the special or the girl who thinks she talks to God. The rest of the cast needs some time to flesh out; although, I'm already liking Detective Eddie Alvarez.
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4-09-2009 @ 2:08PM
Nathaniel said...
This show deserves to fail for that blatant rip-off of that Wire gag.
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4-09-2009 @ 2:17PM
bevo said...
I am pretty sure Homicide did the copier gag too with Munch and Lewis.
This show felt like it was paint by numbers goofiness. It tried too hard.
I will give it two episodes to pull it together, otherwise, I have too much on DVD.
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4-09-2009 @ 6:28PM
MJL said...
Yup, here it is:
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DSHhxZ4BWeBQ
4-09-2009 @ 2:27PM
Johnzo said...
"This first episode moved along at a confident and rapid pace, but the tone was all over the place."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?A rapid pace? It was so SLOW. Tone was all over the place but that added to the quirkiness.
I think this show would be much better if it tried to be a dark comedy instead of quirky drama.
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4-09-2009 @ 3:07PM
Allison said...
I was looking forward to it because the ads were great. I did like parts of it, and not like others. I really liked Casey's backstory of being a socialite and her annoying calls from her mom. I think the premise is really good that since she is wealthy, she can't be bribed and therefore should be the one to find the cops on the take. The characters are pretty interesting and quirky, but the show needs some work at moving stories along. I know that a pilot usually tries to be something for everyone and pleases no one. Let's hope that that this is just a pilot issue and the series sorts itself out quickly.
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4-09-2009 @ 3:20PM
Tia Florinda said...
I agree with the tone being all over the place. I wasn't quite sure how to gauge it. Of course it's just a pilot. I laughed in parts, but it didn't feel balanced. We could have done with one perpetrator hot dog scene, two was a bit much. If they made the quirkiness more subtle, it would be a lot funnier and quirkier. It felt a little caked on. The leads were good though and the mystery compelling. Maybe that can save the show.
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4-09-2009 @ 3:51PM
Susan said...
I was looking forward to The Unusuals but when it showed up I wasn't sure whether to show it the door or let it stay. I hope they take the chance to fix the mistakes they have made with the show because once they do I think it will be a neat little quirky drama.
The characters could be fine but there are to many dysfunctional ones. Like many successful series, ie. Monk (character Randy and Monk) one or two quirky characters are fine but everyone in the show is overkill. Streamline the characters. The editing is choppy the jump from scene to scene disjointed and choppy it's almost like it was written by a daytime drama writer. It should be smooth in transition from scene to scene so that you want to sit and watch instead of feeling like every 60 seconds it's going to switch so you can get up and leave the room and therefore not invest yourself in the story.
If they make a few changes I think I'd give it another try.
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4-09-2009 @ 4:52PM
Brent Schmidt said...
Watched it and during the commercial break they showed a preview for Monday's other new cop show. Swear to God I thought that was the one I was watching. They seriously all look the same.
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4-09-2009 @ 6:22PM
E said...
"Great cast"???? Are you kidding? This is the worst cast show on TV right now. Having one querky character in a show gives it spice, a whole bunch just makes it bad. And the title is pretty much the worst as well, what are in in 1968? (Not that there's anything wrong with 1968, with all the "free love" and all.) I was waiting for the punch line and a joke the entire episode, really. I thought it was a comedy for the first half an hour, then I thought "this is pretty lame for a comedy" and it finally hit me, these people are trying to do a drama! I can't believe this is on TV, it's so bad. I suppose the producer(s) has/have pull; no I did not bother finding out who produced the thing. The only thing clearly as badly written as this was Kings - that did get cancelled, right? The question is, is it bad enough to watch again to see how low TV has gotten? Not for me.
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4-09-2009 @ 6:26PM
MJL said...
"...series star Amber Tamblyn is genuine and beleiveable as Casey Shraeger."
Uh, no, she isn't. Horrible casting...what happened to strong, weathered female Homicide detectives like Melissa Leo or Kim Delaney? And yes, the copier bit was a blatant rip-off of "Homicide," I think it was a stunt pulled by Munch and Bolander.
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4-10-2009 @ 2:09AM
Ed U Kator said...
IIRC they did a version of it on "NYPD Blue".
4-10-2009 @ 12:56AM
Jenny said...
I, too, tuned in for the cast, but this show is a "one and done" for me. Boring, poorly written, trying too hard. I also got the recycled Night Court vibe, and I LOVED Night Court! But I hated this. It put me to sleep multiple times. It actually reminded me of one of those fake TV shows they show you are those scammy "be a TV test audience" events where they really only care about your reactions to the commercials - while keeping you held hostage through several hours of bad pilots that never made it to air.
I have WAY too many other (better) shows to watch than to waste more than 1 hour on this. It's too bad, though. I'm definitely an Amber Tamblyn fan.... even if she is creepily dating David Cross.
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