Talkin' TV fall TV cop shows

We might as well put a picture of a hot chick on top of the blog. That's as likely to get somebody to click on this thing as actual researsh, reporting and writing. Ethics are for journalism students.

Paul: Dano!

Dan: Hey pal, Want to talk cop shows?

Paul: Much like the five-tool player or the "war of five kings" in George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire Fantasy" series. (Soon to be on HBO.) 

Dan: Geez. Do you get a kickback every time you mention HBO on this blog or in conversation with me? If so, I want a piece of that.

Paul: Fine, we will discuss your five new cop shows.

Dan: "OK, I tried "Hawaii Five-0," "Chase," "Law & Order: Los Angeles," "Detroit 1-8-7" and "Blue Bloods."

Paul: OK. Most cop shows are procedurals. Which of these has the best story framework.

Dan: I should say that as a consequence of my work, I have trouble with most cop shows because they are so patently unbelievable.

Paul: Sure. In college, Noc and my physics roomate's pharmacy girlfriend would dissect "ER."

Dan: So, for a cop show to work for me, it's got to have a fantasy level that engages me beyond the standard cliches. This is why I could enjoy "24" even though it's plots were increasingly absurd.

Paul: That makes me think "Hawaii Five-0" works.

Dan: You're right.

Paul: It is illogigical, but the theme song is cool. James Caan's son, Scott Caan, is charaismatic like his dad. There is a hot Asian chick.

Dan: "Hawaii Five-0" makes a small action movie every week.It's replete with buddy cop one-liners, explosions, car chases and bikinis. This is all that a man can ask for from a television show.

Paul: these guys are having fun. So you enjoy it. "Chase," on the other hand, is she having fun?

Dan: "Chase" is godawful. The lead woman is brooding and hard-faced.The shows cliches — such as it taking forever to trace a telephone call — just add to its failure as fiction.

  I can almost see the writers' meeting. "I know, let's have a hot chick star in a cop show." After that, the thinking pretty much stopped. That show is junk. It's like an off-brand cereal. You wanted delicious Lucky Charmes, buy you got the tasteless Magic Oats.

Paul: OK, what about "Blue Bloods?" I believe you found this surprisingly enjoyable.
 

Dan: Yes. There are a lot of cop families. That's a believable premise. I'm sort of tired of shows about crime families. Tom Seleck plays a good grizzled patriarch who juggles being a father of cops and the chief of police. The supporting cast is believable and the tensions between family members are played out honestly. In the pilot, there's a Sunday dinner in which the family end up arguing about work. Two or three family members storm out of the room. Selleck says, "Well, I've got a good piece of hind quarters here" holding up pork roast on a fork. 

Paul: OK. So how are the cop cases in "Blue Bloods?" 

Dan: OK. In the pilot, there is a kidnapping. One of the son's, a detective, beat up a suspect to find out where the girl was hidden. The assistant d.a., which is a daughter in the family and the cop's sister, can't prosecute because his confession was obtained illegally. This leads to a big argument at Sunday dinner.

Paul: It is a good storyline for moral ambiguity.

Dan: It's an issues story that's discussed evenhandedly and thoughtfully with both sides divided within the same family at the same table. That's politics in 21st century America if I've ever seen it.

 Dan: A subplot in the episode involves the youngest son becoming a cop even though his older brother was shot and killed in the line of duty. The youngest cop is approached by internal affairs agents to help investigate a secret society within the police department that may have had his brother killed.

Paul: Good grief. That feels like a little too much going on.

Dan: Yeah, I sometimes felt a little overwhelmed. Not every case in the department centers around this family.

Paul: OK. We like “Five-O.” “Chase” can go chase it’s own tale. “Blue Bloods” is good, solid fare, like a good Sunday pot roast dinner. “Detroit 1-8-7?”

Dan: The problem with "1-8-7" is that I've seen "The Wire." I know what a cop show set in a decaying American city looks like. It isn't "Detroit1-8-7." The police force and the city has cartoonish racial diversity. More than 65 percent of Detroit cops are black. Why doesn’t the show reflect that? It’s almost as bad as marketing materials from a college in which you see three minority kids smiling with one white kid. There’s an Indian guy, a black guy on the verge of retirement (oddly, not played by Danny Glover) and some quirky white guy who has interpersonal problems. The first episode is about a white spree killer. This happens in the world, but more than 75 percent of all homicides go unsolved in Detroit. I would watch a show about a department who can barely keep up with homicides. Real drama is how cops handle the pressure to solve crimes and a crumbling city infrastructure, budget and so on.

Paul: That show was called "Homicide"

Dan: And "The Wire."

Paul: Right. Both by the same guys set in another decaying city, Baltimore.

Dan: This is a show that plays quasi-Motown blues music over montages of generic streets and has the case-of-the-week flavor of "Law & Order" without the accompanying entertainment. “Detroit 1-8-7” just insults me. The world doesn't look like this. It doesn't work like this. If you're going to use the name Detroit, then act like the city. Don't give me some ordinary garbage and pretend it’s special because Detroit is in the name. This show is so weak it could set in Des Moines.

Paul: OK. “Law & Order: Los Angeles.”

Dan: I like it the way I like "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: SVU." Why? Because I like fish sandwiches from McDonald's. I know exactly what they are. I know exactly how they taste. And it doesn't really matter where I get them, whether its New York or L.A. or Des Moines.

Paul: Dick Woolf is an old pro. Alan Sepinwall, my idol, claims the cast is uninteresting. “Law & Order” embraced New York. L.A. is too pretty to have crime. If I want to watch hot people in a crime show, “Hawaii Five-0" is a better bet.

Dan: I stand by my McLaw&Order take.

Paul: So, in the final analysis, are you going to watch any of these shows going forward?

Dan: “Hawaii Five-0” is a certainty. “Blue Bloods,” too. “Chase” and “Detroit 1-8-7” were dead on arrival for me. I’ll probably just watch “Law & Order: Los Angeles” in a TNT marathon some Sunday. And there’s always Retro TV reruns of my favorite cop show of all time, “Adam-12.”

Talkin' "Mad Men" Season Four, Episode 10: "Hands and Knees"

By PAUL RUSSELL and DANIEL P. FINNEY
TV Talkin’ Blog Staff Writers

Paul the accountant and Dan the newsman discuss the 10th episode of the fourth season of “Mad Men,” “Hands and Knees.”

PAUL: One thing "Mad Men" does is there will be a long stretch of episodes where not much happens, but there are tensions to distract us. Peggy is unhappy or Don is drinking and Betty gets a bug up her butt. So this episode, there was a tension related to the Beatles concert. You’re like, ‘Oh, I wonder how the Beatles thing goes.’ Do the tickets fall through and the Don’s daughter flips out. But that went fine and everything else that could go wrong did so.

DAN: This was the best episode of the season thus far. The last three episodes have been grand slams. Everybody is swept up in their secrets and lies. Don’s lie could crush his family and collapse the new firm. Roger’s and Joan’s lie results in an abortion. Roger’s other lie puts the firm on the brink. Pete’s lie saves Don but possibly wrecks the agency. And what a dramatic moment to have Don reveal the truth of his life to Faye.

PAUL: Also, don’t forget Lane Pryce’s storyline: he has a black girlfriend and his father hits him like a pimp would. That was a great scene. You wonder what will come out of it. Will Don address his past? Will Betty forgive Don? Will Betty grow up some? Will Joan look at her life differently? Will Pryce stand up for himself? Lee Garner Jr. saying to Roger that he inherited the account and Don telling Pete he can run the agency without him.

DAN: The Lee Garner Jr. moment is powerful. It’s basically saying Roger has never accomplished anything and rode his father’s coattails to riches.

PAUL: The great thing about the Garner deal is you always picture Lee Garner Jr. being immature and that immaturity or secret gay lifestyle will end up wrecking the relationship. But no, the company moved from a family business to a corporation and a 30-year relationship means nothing.

DAN: Sure, in the end, it’s Roger whimpering.

PAUL: What did you think of Roger talking to Joan about the baby?

DAN: Roger is a character I don't like. I should say, he's the kind of person I don't like. He's a character who behaves in ways I hate. But he's a perfectly created character. He rests on laurels earned by others. He’s a crap father, husband and business man. So, here, he's trying desperately to be a good guy. He probably loves Joan. But he's gotten her pregnant. Both are married to other people. He actually suggests, "Well, maybe your husband will get killed in Vietnam." The amazing thing is she doesn't flip out. Instead she says, "That's not a solution."

PAUL: He has that great line. He says something like “I think I just might love you.” Wow. How romantic.

DAN: I guess this is an upgrade from him saying “You’re the best piece of ass I’ve ever had.”

PAUL: Yeah, it felt like a downgrade.

DAN: Roger has been maudlin this season. Everything that gives him his identity is evaporating. Lucky Strike. His health. His World War II hero status. Nobody gives a flip about his advertising war stories book. Roger is in danger of extinction. Earlier in the series, he complained that no one respected the work he did. It turns out for good reason. He didn’t do any work. He’s a crummy person. Lucky Strike bolts. He calls old contacts. He learns they’re dead and he hasn’t bothered to keep in touch with them anyway. He’s accomplished nothing. His whole life is as much a lie as Don’s. At least Don has Faye. Roger wants Joan, but she is noncommittal. Nothing good has ever come out of Joan and Roger.

PAUL: A parrot. A fur coat.

PAUL: So the episode ends with Don looking at the new secretary, Megan.

DAN: Yes, this is ominous, I think.

PAUL: Well, this could mean many things. Don could be leering. He could admire her because she is an innocent unlike everyone else in the episode where they tested Pond’s Cold Cream with Faye. the secretary stood out there helpful, honest and earnest. She likes Don’s daughter. She is seen putting on her make up. No cares. She is leaving the office behined her. No secrets to keep her and no secrets to harm her. I feel like something is being built towards. Maybe Don hooks up with the secretary to punish himself for being happy with Faye.

DAN: I hope not. But then “Mad Men” excels at not giving the viewer what he wants. I hope it’s a ruse, like Beatles tickets.

PAUL: The secretary is a good enough actress to merit a bigger storyline. Don makes for a balanced character. You often have a show   with a charismatic bad guy who is revealed to have a good side to make him more appealing to the audience. Don could easily be a charismatic villain.

DAN: This is one of the running themes of this year’s season. There is a lot of long-term bad behavior finally reaching a comeuppance point. Don has lied for decades and it threatens everything. Joan and Roger rekindle previous bad behavior and it leads to an abortion and stirs up troubling feelings. There is also transitions and a meditation on modern aging, a changing of the guard sort of like Bob Dylan’s “The Times Are A Changin’.”

PAUL: So we are down to the final three episodes of the season.

DAN: That’s depressing. TV should be this good in six or seven slots on the schedule, not one. I mentioned before I have several new shows gathering dust on my DVR already. I was one-and-done for "Chase" and "Nikita." I want more shows that seem like they have a plan. I want more shows that don't do things to pander to the ratings. I want more shows that are good, that value character, story and acting. I want to enjoy more television.