By djariya at 2011-01-01

Synopsis:



Created and Executive Produced by Shawn Ryan (The Shield)

Starring:
Jennifer Beals (Lie to Me, Flashdance)
Jason Clarke (Brotherhood)
Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights)
Delroy Lindo (Kidnapped)
Todd Williams (In Plain Sight)

13 episode 1st season

I follow Shawn Ryan's Twitter feed and he has mentioned that the show is serialized.

Here's a few positive reviews:

http://tvovermind.zap2it.com/fox/the...e-review/46491

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020603646.html

Preview Featurette featuring interviews with Ryan, Beals, Clarke

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/keHo6akpu6E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Trailer:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/X3GKW5wsbO0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm a fan of Shawn Ryan's work and hopefully this is good and does well. With the absolute bust Human Target was in it's 2nd season, FOX needs a good serialized action show.

Looking forward to this.

A show about a corrupt black Chicago politician? Real subtle, Rupert.

I'm excited for this. While Hawaii 5-0 has pretty cool action, I still haven't found a show to fill my "24" void. I was expecting Human Target to do that this season, but that's a joke.

With corruption as the central theme for this show, I hope it can be a good substitute for 24.

Looking forward to this especially Beals.

I've been looking forward to this. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

I'm game.

From the reviews I have read and Shawn Ryan's reputation, there is little doubt this show will be awesome. But because it will be (and it is on Fox, coupled with the fact Tim Minear is involved) this will no doubt get canceled.

Here is to holding out hope that doesn't happen.

Totally looking forward to this.

I'm actually excited to check this out. I hope Fox has marketed this accurately!

I'll give it shot. Hopefully they don't dedicate 50% of the show to watching the spouses of the cops gossiping.

Really looking forward to this. Delroy Lindo should make a great villain.

Hmm...I hadn't planned on watching this, but after all the comparisons to 24, I'll give it a shot. Adding it to my DVR.

I'll be tuning in

I've heard they overhyped the "Every cop in this city answers to ME!" angle, and I hope that's right. I think it's supposed to actually be about one renegade cop and his dealings with his supervisor and others. Love Shawn Ryan's past offerings, so I'm ready for this... (Chicago Tribune also raved out it.)

dumping The Cape for this....

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Roush-Re...o-1028956.aspx

Another good review today from Matt Roush of TV Guide

Meh.
It gets one more chance.

this was incredibly boring. that car chase conversation was beyond unrealistic. can't believe people wanted this after the superbowl. wow

For a Pilot, I thought it was pretty good, but not amazing. I like the style of the show and Ryan has definitely painted a gritty picture. It's no Terriers (), but definitely off to a strong start. The characters already have a good deal of depth and shared history, which is great, but there's also a lot of room for them to grow and develop, which is important.

Coming into the Pilot, I think we all knew someone was going to be killed by the end of the episode. Seemed pretty obvious it was going to be Beals's partner, since he wasn't in the promo photo, lol.

I really liked the introduction of Clarke's character and letting the guy see his girlfriend before he went to jail, even though it was totally ridiculous.

I like most of the main characters so far, particularly Beals, Clarke, Lauria, and Lush. I don't really like Clarke's niece of her partner, they seem like they'll be the weak link in the show. The only one I'm not entirely sure about yet, surprisingly, is Delroy Lindo. I like him a lot as an actor, but wasn't really feeling his portrayal of the Alderman in this episode. I'm sure he'll prove himself in the coming weeks though.

The one thing I wasn't exactly crazy about though was the voiceovers. They could have just been used in the Pilot as a way to better introduce the characters, but I suspect they'll stick around. Hopefully they get better, because they sort of felt inauthentic and forced; but I'm willing to chalk that up to it being the Pilot. The one time it was very effective though was when the guy got shot; cutting quickly from the nice flashbacks to the shooting was great editing.

It wasn't perfect, but I appreciated that they didn't rely solely on action and tried to balance the two. Definitely looking forward to next week's episode and hope it improves upon this one.

But yeah, it definitely won't get a second season since Tim Minear is involved, lol.

Haha, same here. I'll catch those episodes on Hulu, but am watching this one live. The Cape was basically dead on arrival anyway. A fun show, but nothing that will last.

Loved this. All of the characters are likable, especially the Superintendent. I'll be tuning in next week.

I liked the opening episode, but I didn't love it. It was a little slow and I thought the narration/voice-overs by some of the characters was a little weird. I realize it was there to help set up the characters, but I think it could have been done differently. I also watch Southland, which I think is the best produced cop show on TV and I think this will be hard pressed to match the intensity and grittiness of it.

As far as setting up a arc around the Chicago Police trying to take down a corrupt Politician, I think Shawn Ryan did a good job with that. Once I saw that woman confide in Alderman Gibbons about the numbers not matching up, I knew she was screwed. Delroy Lindo should make an interesting villain.

Also, Teresa and Antonio getting shot at the end was a surprise.

I liked Jason Clarke as Wysocki and Jennifer Beals as Colvin alot. Both of them are strong actors and are good leads for this show. Being that this is a network show and not cable, I found it funny that Ryan wrote Wysocki as someone who hates cursing

The preview for the coming weeks does look promising. I just hope that people choosing to watch this show aren't expecting The Shield Part 2.

Overall I though it was a solid start - some of the stuff was a little rough and they did a lot of what seemed like forced background on the characters (would have liked that to come out over a few episodes and not through voiceovers). I'm not sold on Beals in this role yet... I just didn't see her as a superintendent, maybe that will change over a few episodes.

I also wish Ryan didn't go back to the kill a character in the pilot well with the shooting at the end, but I guess he felt it needed to push Wysocki into the covert team. I liked the young partner (forgot his name) and the plotline on how he picked up something about the UC and that was his in with Wysocki. While it would have been funny to go through partners every 1 or 2 shows for a while, a small off the books investigative team probably doesn't lend itself to that.

I thought the Beals voice-over was really weak (heck most of them were) and found myself also hoping it won't be a regular thing or at least they are a little less heavy handed.

Wysocki's partners name is Caleb Evers played by Matt Lauria formerly of Friday Night Lights.

I did think it was funny when Evers just kept throwing random pop culture top-5 questions to Wysocki. And Wysocki would give him a dirty look afterwards.

In case some of you don't already know, Jason Clarke (Wysocki) is Australian.

Now that I think about it, I think Wysocki character is supposed to be a throwback to the old 70's or 80's TV Cop, especially with his hate for profanity.

She does look a little goofy in the hat, especially compared to the current SI:




My favorite part was when Wysocki tricked the kid into admitting he was a Cubs fan. As he was saying it I said to myself "Uh oh, the Sox don't play at 1:20, lol"