Synopsis:

Detectives Frank Agnew (Mark Strong) and Joe Geddes (Lennie James, "The Walking Dead") murder a fellow Detroit police officer in the opener of this crime drama based on a British miniseries. As internal affairs investigates the case, crime lord Damon Callis and his wife Maya discuss future plans.

Written by Chris Mundy
Directed by Ernest Dickerson


10 episode 1st season


Trailer:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QdWAYnkuF8c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Pretty high profile new AMC show. Thought I would go ahead and post this now.

This show is actually filmed on location in Detroit.

I've been looking forward to this and not just because it was filmed here in Motown.

Set up a series recording for this on my DVR. Hopefully it's good. The premise sounds a bit more interesting than a typical procedural show and the previews have looked good thus far.

I read a few reviews and they weren't exactly positive, which surprises me. The cast is stellar. Maybe it is one of those slow burn shows.

I read the LA Times and their TV critic liked it.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,1378363.story

Here's an interesting excerpt:

Looking forward to this only because of Strong and James. AMC hasn't created a good original series since Mad Men and Breaking Bad...and what's worse is that those were their first two.

Is that fucking Gale in the trailer? I can't take that dude seriously after Breaking Bad.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1422702

This writer thinks it's a good show that has the potential to be a great show.

He says it's not the kind of show that will be loved immediately by millions. So the slow burn thing might be true here.

Honestly thinking like that makes new shows destined to fail. Not every show is going to be the next Breaking Bad or any of the great drama series to come about. Those types of shows are once in a great while type of happenings where everything lines up and lightning is captured in a bottle. You can't just easily replicate them. I just am hoping the show is good (same as any show I anticipate) and if it becomes great then that's awesome but you can't make constant comparisons.

Rubicon had potential to be great until they cancelled it. Damn shame that show didn't get more of a chance if you ask me. It was a slow burner but I found it interesting. Aside from that though I agree. I wanted to like The Killing but it wound up being a massive disappointment. Hell on Wheels from what I've seen doesn't do much for me. Also The Walking Dead is overrated as crap. I like Comic Book Men but it's a reality show so doesn't count on the same level.

I met Lennie James about 5 years ago at a convention in LA when he was promoting Jericho. Really cool guy. He signed my DVD as well. He was the best part of Jericho.

So did anyone watch this after Breaking Bad?

How was it?

If it's a slow burn, I'm probably out.

A very slow burn.

I dunno about this one. Some of the acting came off as borderline cheesy and over-the-top dramatic. Mark Strong was pretty grounded, and although I do like Lonnie James I wasn't feeling him in the pilot.

I think I'll stick with it for the Strong factor, but there was nothing that really differentiated this show from a run-of-the-mill network cop drama. It felt like something I've seen before. Hopefully the writing improves and the story goes somewhere interesting.

I watched it and liked it.

Lennie James and Mark Strong were great. I also thought Dave Costabile was solid as the IA investigator.

The center point of the plot is murder and corruption. Agnew and Geddes murder a cop in the beginning, who is allegedly dirty. They cover it up and dump his body. They didn't say specifically, but it appears that the dirty cop was involved with the death of Agnew's girlfriend, which was the motivating factor for Agnew. There is a big reveal at the end that makes the plot a little more complex. Another body is discovered.

James character Geddes also may be dirty as well. James just ate up the scenes he was in. Liked seeing Ruben Santiago-Hudson from Castle back running a squad room.

The B plot with the guys who ripped off the drug dealer didn't really gel with the main arc. It was weird seeing Sprague Grayden as a blonde.

James and Strong are good enough to keep me watching an entire season. Hell, it's only 10 episodes.

I agree with the NY Daily News writer that this is a show that will need a little time to gain an audience. Not everyone is going to love it right away.

I noticed that Michael McGrady, who played the dirty cop, was also on Ray Donovan tonight as well.

BTW, it was nice to see Athena Karkanis here.



She isn't really well known in the States except maybe her role in the Saw movies. I've always found her quite hot.

Another terrible AMC series.

What a surprise.

Slow burn...so another Rubicon (which AMC didn't have the patience for)? I didn't watch last night, but plan to get to it this week at some point.

Creating TV shows with a "slow burn" formula seems almost like a mistake nowadays. Most viewers no longer have the attention span to sit through shows that unravel at a slow pace. They used to for the most part, but not anymore. My thoughts on the show? It was just OK! I would have liked to have seen a little more action maybe? It just felt like a slow and gloomy soap opera. I hope to see the gangsters' story better intertwined with the main plot soon, because so far it didn't seem like there was a purpose other than to have a subplot behind the main plot. I'll stick with it because despite a few flaws, I see some degree of potential somewhere.

Good to see James Ransone (Ziggy Sobotka from the 2nd season of The Wire) getting some more roles!

Tried to watch this last night, but it was the last thing on my list, it was late and I couldn't pay much attention to it. I'll give it another shot later this week.

Was trying awfully hard to remain interested. Not sure if slow-burn is the phrase I would use. I will try a few more, but was not overly impressed.
The characters were very unlikeable, not someone who I feel that I would follow week after week.

Doug

Just thought of something. The Cop who was murdered by Geddes and Agnew was drowned in a restaurant sink (in probably treated tap water) His body was discovered in a river.

I don't know if this show is that detailed oriented, but if they did a really thorough autopsy, the coroner would see the water in his lungs isn't river water.

At the beginning, Geddes pulled the top off of the lobster tank and Agnew mentioned the salt water. So I'm guessing that your point may come into play. The only part I was confused about was the whole security camera thing. It seemed, right before the commercial break, that McCann's security camera was some sort of revelation to Geddes and Agnew, but then Agnew goes over the events and we see that they staged it. I'm assuming they knew about the camera from the beginning but I didn't like the pre-commercial tease.

I think this show has potential and I'm in for now.

Ratings were actually not bad. It retained a lot of Breaking Bad's audience. It will be interesting to see what the DVR numbers look like. 2.5M viewers for a new show not called The Walking Dead is actually not bad for AMC.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...-18-49/196919/


Was really surprised they went almost 26 minutes with no commercials.

Keep coming back every week to tell us how horrible it is.

Everytime I see that guy, I think he's a poor man's version of Christian Bale.

As for the show, I liked it. Strong and James are always great in whatever they do. Liked all the twists and turns.

They did what they could to keep the Breaking Bad audience. "Stay tuned for scenes from the next Breaking Bad during the first commercial break..."....yeah, 26 minutes in!!

I liked it. The side-story needs to be fleshed out some more, but that's the only problem I had with it.