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 The Unusuals

(April 10th, 2009.   Editor)               Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau, Josh Close, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Kai Lennox, Terry Kinney and Adam Goldberg star in the one hour detective drama The Unusuals, airing Wednesdays on ABC.

Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) has just been transferred to the NYPD's Homicide unit from Vice and is instantly thrown into a setting of bullets and bodies. As she begins her new assignment, Casey finds that the squad is full of secrets, which serves her well, since she's keeping a few of her own.

In the pilot episode, Casey is taken off the streets where she's been working as an undercover hooker and finds herself reassigned to the Second Precinct, effective immediately. She meets her new partner, Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner), whose last partner, Detective Burt Kowalski, was just murdered. Tasked with tracking down the murderer, Walsh races off to investigate Kowalski's past, with Shraeger trailing behind.

As the duo seeks out the cop killer, the secrets and eccentricities of the rest of the department begin to emerge. Prank-magnet and social climber Detective Eddie Alvarez (Kai Lennox) has no qualms about stealing cases, as long as he can turn them into front-page stories that make him look good. Detective Eric Delahoy (Adam Goldberg) is trying to get himself killed in the line of duty for reasons known only to him and his doctor. His partner, Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau), is convinced he is going to die and refuses to take off his bulletproof vest, and the very religious Detective Henry Cole (Josh Close) is trying to keep his unholy past from both his streetwise partner, Alison Beaumont (Monique Gabriela Curnen), and from his boss, Sgt. Brown (Terry Kinney), who is struggling to rid the Second Precinct of corruption.

Despite a weak opening to the pilot episode, there is something watch-able about this rag-tag collection of cops. As the episode unfolds, we see the usual crimes and the stereotypical squad room. But then we get a change in direction. The two-dimensional characters we are expecting start to get very human. In that transition, we see the job and the people who do it in a whole new light. If the writers take that in an interesting direction, the audience will follow.

The fast music, stylish photography and quirky humor that are being used to package this show, help to make it stand-out as more than just another New York cop show. But it is the cast and the story that will make us come back again next week. The standout is Adam Goldberg's portrayal of Detective Eric Delahoy. His character's suicidal actions in the line of duty nearly get him killed twice in the pilot episode.

In a sea of cop shows, the ones that succeed are the ones that get noticed. If this show lives-up to its name, and the self-imposed billing as the "M*A*S*H" of cops shows, it might have a chance. But that is a tall order and I just hope that the writing staff and the cast are ready to back-up their claims with an edgy show that offers us more than the usual.

 

Editor

 

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