Anybody watching? What do you think?
I think it’s a pleasant, breezy little police procedural. Alan Cumming is watchable in pretty much anything that you put him in, and Bojana Novakovic is nice to look at. Having his character be a happily married gay man is a storytelling choice I’m curious to see what they do with. I rather like how quickly they unpacked and disposed of her character’s tragic backstory. That was shaping up to be a nuisance that the writers were going to pull out of storage to bore us with again and again, season after season, like the stuff with Beckett’s mother on Castle … and then, BOOM, it’s gone! However, I can’t say I was thrilled to see them pair off the two characters they paired off in the most recent episode. I don’t feel like they laid enough groundwork, and it wasn’t very convincing as a result.
I feel like the show is a setup we’ve seen before: smartypants guy who doesn’t play by the rules, partnered with by-the-book woman. Sounds a lot like The Mentalist, Elementary, Lie To Me, and of course the already-mentioned Castle.
But that’s okay, because I love that setup. As long as the characters are likable… and the “too much of a rebel” dude has to care, and be interesting. Which Alan Cumming is, so I’ll keep watching.
I’m with Snooooopy. That sums up my feelings too. They are charismatic characters, I like that there won’t be some lame unrequited love story nonsense, but the conclusion of this week’s episode came out of nowhere and needlessly complicates things.
The plots for the procedurals, however, are unnecessarily elaborate and completely absurd. I can put up with them for the sake of everything else that I like, but they’ve got to calm down a bit, no need to get so silly so soon, they shouldn’t need to be barrel-scraping just yet.
I watched a few episodes. I wish Alan Cumming used his Scottish accent. I found the plots dull and the acting wooden so I won’t be watching any more episodes.
What happened to his partner’s dog Gary? When she said he was old and she was going to have him put to sleep, it made me furious that they would pull a cheap, gratuitous, hot-button shot like that in the first episode. I haven’t been back.
Watching merely as a fan of Cumming.
Yeah, it’s struggling. The writers are bouncing around trying to figure what works or not. E.g., making the hot dog vendor a regular employee in the PD. What the what?
I hate the death-of-a-loved one backstory, long term story arc business. It’s like the hospital shows where everyone and their uncle has to have emergency surgery eventually. Just because your work in a PD doesn’t mean you have a bunch of friend and family crimes to solve.
The core idea of Cumming using his psycho psychology skills to solve crimes seems to be tertiary. The ex-CIA thing seems bigger (but stupider).
Whoopi Goldberg sort of acted like Cumming’s therapist in one episode and that would have worked a lot better than being his editor (or whatever she is).
Since John Doman plays Cumming’s father, now I’ve got it stuck in my head that Dylan Reinhart and Maura Isles are half-siblings.
We’re watching so far because we like pretty much all the actors, but I agree that the writing is weak. I’m hoping they get it figured out pretty soon.
There’s only one episode left, but they are renewed for a second season. I’m sure there will be adjustments made by then. Keeping to the formula for a while, instead of poking and prodding at it so often, would be my advice.
Yeah, I gave up after a few episodes. The premise is, as mentioned, very similar to some other shows. This one, though, seems to lack the charm some of the others had. It feels like a poor imitation. I was a fan of Castle, and I would love to have had another season or five of Forever. This isn’t a suitable substitute.
I like Alan Cumming in some of his roles, but not this. I just don’t buy his character as a prim and proper but bad-ass former CIA operative. The female lead’s characters is uninteresting. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything having dropped it.
I don’t think I buy Alan Cumming as the bad-ass either. What bothers me about these episodes is the bit of “magic” that happens about 3/4 through the episode where Dylan is surrounded by a halo of light and makes the ridiculous leap that solves the case.
**they don’t portray it as real magic but it would almost have to be magical to make the connections that he does.
I’m probably going to watch the rest of the season (only 1 episode left). But I doubt I’ll pick it up next season.