Detroit 1-8-7 … I’ll admit that ABC hasn’t done us right quite yet since canceling The Unusuals, but this band of merry cops is awesome all the same. I’ve really been enjoying the show, albeit on tape-delay, and I hope that you have been too. Let us away to the players.
I was a huge fan of The Sopranos, and Christopher Moltisanti was one of my favorite characters on the show. Remember when they did that flashback where we were meant to buy Michael Imperioli as a younger version of himself just because he was wearing a baseball hat?
Anyway, I excitedly checked out Life on Mars when it premiered because of Imperioli … not for me. But then the remake failed and Imperioli got another shot with Detroit 1-8-7. So what was he going to do with his second chance?
Detective Louis Fitch is weird, no question. But he’s also interesting, and a great cop. Surprising that Imperioli seems drawn to that side of the law now. I was curious as to why Henry Malloy (Todd Stashwick) would come and go so fast, but now we see that it’s Fitch’s old life in New York that’s going to be his ongoing ghost on the show.
Fitch’s relationships with the other members of the squad vary in their levels of interesting — I still don’t get the weird thing between him and Sanchez (Natalie Martinez) — and it’s his partnership with Washington (Jon Michael Hill) that I’m liking the most. New to the unit and a new father to boot, Fitch and Washington’s relationship would be as a mentor to his mentee … if Fitch wasn’t so afraid of human interaction that he needs to call Washington from across the squad room or a few feet away in the car every time he wants to say something. I love seeing Washington struggle with how to work with Fitch, and also with how to feel about him.
The fact that Longford (James McDaniel) is meant to retire soon makes me wonder what the game plan was there, but as long as he’s around I’m going to enjoy him. Actually, I don’t know if it’s him individually so much as the fact that Longford and Mahajan (Shaun Majumder) together are the perfect “B” team, a terrific lighter-material duo. That both are more senior and therefore feel more comfortable in their roles than someone like Washington allows them to have a better time belittling one another. And I love that Mahajan has this arranged marriage thing going on via text messages.
Lieutenant Mason’s (Aisha Hinds) been tough to get to know in the same way that all supervisors on cop shows are — they have no partner, they’re the boss, etc. So nothing allows them to delve into who they are. We saw her daughter once, and her friend the ADA got killed, but she’s still mainly unknown. I think it will take something like her having once been partnered with Longford and an old case of theirs comes back to haunt them to really allow her character to develop. That said, however, so far so good.
I’m not sure how much time Sanchez has in homicide, but Stone (D.J. Cotrona) is certainly brand new. They’re the newbies to Longford and Mahajan’s grizzled veterans, and I love how Stone brings with him a narcotics sensibility that totally clashes with Fitch. I don’t know that I’m enthusiastic about Stone and Sanchez being romantically linked, but at the same time Wendy (Erin Way) walking in on them, and then everything that followed in the squad room, was great. If done in that vein, less romantic and more humorously disruptive, it could be a lot of fun.
In fact, the only development I’m not enthusiastic about is Jess Harkins (Megan Dodds). It might just be my wariness following the debacle that was Alex Rice (Tricia Helfer) on Dark Blue, but I don’t see where this show needed another presence added to the mix. Fitch is doing just fine without an FBI agent to trip over, and I’m an episode behind but so help me if they start hooking up…. I think Fitch has enough going on; certainly he has a long way to go yet to repair his relationship with his son. Let him focus on that.
And then the use of Detroit as a backdrop and a plot point … it probably would be fair to say that there’s nothing overwhelmingly unique about Detroit 1-8-7, but when it works, it works. And this show just clicks on all cylinders.
Congrats, Michael Imperioli, you have found your new home!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Feb 17, 2011 @ 15:30 EST5EDT
