TVSquad

When TNT's Raising The Bar first started, my first reaction was, what the hell is going on with Mark-Paul Gosselar's hair? And now they went and actually made an episode about it, where he got it cut off (that's him with the new 'do above). I bet fans of the show hated the hair and wanted it gone.

What did everyone think of this second season opener?

TNT's original dramas are kind of hit or miss for me. I'm absolutely in love with The Closer, but have zero interest in Saving Grace, despite its good reviews and Holly Hunter's Emmy nomination. It was while I was watching The Closer that I saw the ads for Raising the Bar, TNT's newest series, which premieres on Monday, September 1 at 10 pm. I've got to say, I had the same reaction when I first saw promos for Saving Grace: "meh."

I love a good lawyer show, but there was something about Raising the Bar that just struck me as bland. I really didn't know if I'd even bother checking out the premiere. However, when I got the chance to see the first three episodes, I decided to jump on it. This way I could check it out at my leisure, but more importantly, I could figure out just what the hell is going on with Mark-Paul Gosselaar's hair.

(S04E07) "The helmet threw me." - Carl Sack

I am starting to feel that my statements regarding the extreme disinterest I feel for Saffron Burrows and her character on Boston Legal are becoming repetitive. Therefore I am going to comment one last time on how extremely unsexy the kiss was between her and Alan. All I could think was how much hotter it would be if she were Rhona Mitra. From now on, whenever I feel a longing for Ms. Mitra while watching BL, instead of commenting on it, I will go and rent The Hollow Man instead.

James Spader has to be to television what Christopher Walken is to movies. How he can go from a defenseless, lovesick puppy to a slimy, lecherous shyster in the blink of an eye is an acting skill I would kill to have. Pamela Adlon is certainly sexy in her own way but as an actor, I would have a hard time putting the moves on Bobby Hill.

Before Viva Laughlin (one of the worst shows to premiere on television in the past five years) debuted, no one would have believed a show like Cop Rock ever existed. Cops and crooks suddenly breaking into song and/or dance about robberies, shootings, drug deals, and murder? Sure, why not!

It came from Steven Bochco and ran on ABC in 1990. Check out the video after the jump. It's the classic scene you saw on Hill Street Blues all the time, the cops getting their morning rundown on what's going on. Then the captain suddenly starts singing "Let's Be Careful Out There." There's a cameo by another Bochco star at the end. I'm still wondering why the cops don't look at the guy singing and say "um, shouldn't we call the police psychologist?"

All right, let's get into this Cop Rock thing that the A.V. Club has just mentioned as one of the top "lamentably lost" television shows. Trust me folks, the show was not something to lament about. In fact, I'm sure there are people out there who wish the show would just be lost and buried deep into the ground.

I guess you could say that the concept of the show was unique. Created by Steven Bochco, who was known as the driving force behind the police drama Hill Street Blues, Cop Rock combined said police drama with musical theater. Each episode of the short-lived series, which ran on ABC from September to December of 1990, began with a music-video style credit sequence with theme music by Randy Newman. Then, throughout each week's program, characters would break out in song and dance during the middle of a scene. For example, a jury would sing out "He's Guilty" in Gospel format, or a lineup of Hispanic suspects would proclaim racial discrimination in a pithy little ditty.

(S01E09/S01E10) This was a pretty interesting episode pairing. The first one, "Ice Follies," was probably the best episode of the season so far. It was tense. It held my attention and I didn't yawn. That's saying something. Before I get to the good stuff though, let's get rid of the boring junk. Once again, Sherry Stringfield's character serves no purpose. Either she's not around at all (which is great) or she randomly enters a scene and you're caught off guard. Since transferring at the DA's office, she's now working in a new role which places her at the station with John. Wonderful. Now we can't avoid her. All I can say is that Stringfield must have sighed with delight when Caruso decided to leave at the end of the season. If she had to hang around as his ex-wife for a second season? That would have been tough. Plus, the first season of ER just wouldn't have been the same.

(S01E08) It's not that I'm against fancy one-liners for episode titles. I just find it sort of disappointing when you read one that sounds interesting and the episode barely has anything to do with it. The Sopranos and Deadwood are notorious for this. I like my episode titles to be simple, but descriptive. Take Seinfeld and "The Puffy Shirt." Going into that, you got a pretty good idea about the focus of the episode.

Alright, you can tell I'm reaching here because eight episodes in, and we finally got to one that I didn't really enjoy. It was just slow. But we did get a new character. Donna Abandando (played by Gail O'Grady) got hired by Lt. Fancy to be the new detective's secretarial assistant. She seems a little loopy, but it's the type of character that can lighten up some of the more serious scenes. The "tempest in a c-cup?" That would be her and she was in the episode for only a couple of minutes. It would have made far more sense to call this one something along the lines of "The Taxi Cab Butcher." What, too much?

(S01E07) This had to be the first point in the season where the writers for this show just said, "What the hell? Let's go nuts." So they did. People got whacked. Children went missing and there was a guy who thought he was a werewolf.

Martinez (to the wolf guy): "So, uh, what do you like to be called? Mr. Wolf?"

The wolf guy would be Lou (hence the title). He's a bum who seems to think he's a werewolf and he uses it as an excuse to get locked up for the night (hey, it's a bed). What had me excited about it was who played the wolf guy: Dan Hedaya! He's one of my favorite character actors. Check out his IMDb page because he's been in a ton of stuff. This had to have been a crowning achievement for him though because he was actually credited as "Lou the Werewolf."

(S01E05) A Martinez-centric story. I didn't think we'd get one of these this early in the game. He still seems like too minor a character to warrant an episode largely devoted to him.

That being said, it wasn't half bad. One of the things I like about this show is seeing all the cop show stereotypes that it helped to create. In this case, I'm referring to the young rookie cop being side-lined because he has to watch over his smack addict brother. That's a stereotype... right?

Plus, the story allowed for the list of unexpected guest stars to keep growing. Luis Guzman made a random turn as James' father Hector. I didn't really buy it though, especially since Nicholas Turturro and Guzman only differ in age by five years. They looked more like brothers than father and son. Ahh, the joys of the suspension of disbelief.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.

(S01E01) Ahh, the glory days. When men were men, gas was cheap(er), and David Caruso wasn't aging like a raisin while patrolling the beaches of Miami. Of course, I'm talking about NYPD Blue when Caruso (as Detective John Kelly) was scouring the streets of Manhattan with the best bad New York accent I've ever heard. The year was 1993 and Steven Bochco and David Milch's new ABC cop drama would ensure that television would never be the same. It was, after all, dubbed the first ever "R-Rated" TV series.

Lately I've been on a bit of an F/X rant, but I'm the first to admit it because thus far they haven't produced one program that I didn't enjoy. Over*There was no exception. It was produced by Steven Bochco which automatically gave it some "street cred" in the TV world, but I think what ultimately killed the show was its timing. It's the first show that has ever depicted soldiers during an actual war, and even though it created an outlet for people to maybe try and cope with the war that's still going on, it was placed in a position where it suffered from overexposure. People had seen enough war on the news, and it seems likely that when Over*There came on many people probably opted to change the channel.