s
p o
i l
e r

s
p a
c e

Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy one-note
characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
were even mentioned.

In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.

The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is in the
main police building for the Atlanta police department for no particular
reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great Sonja
Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).

Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
anywhere.

His on and off girl friend is Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen,
who has aged very slowly), an undercover vice cop seen regularly in the
company of other cops, recovering drug addict, who gets transferred to
homicide. Her partner in homicide is Michael Ormewood. He's played by
Jake McLaughlin, an actor I've disliked since The Rookie: FBI: Montreal,
I mean Quantico. The only thing the Quantico tv series had going for it
was Priyanka Chopra's fantastic head of hair, but that show got so
stupid even I had to stop watching.

Faith Mitchell (Iantha Richardson) is the partner Amanda saddles Will
with, yanked from the city police to the state police. I don't think any
police agency supervisor has the power to transfer a detective to
another force, but tv writers know best. She had several appearances on
This Is Us as the adult version of one of the child characters in
episodes set in future.

In an amazing coincidence, Faith hates Will because he busted her
mother, also a city cop, in another corruption scandal decades earlier.
Amanda is well aware of this but order Faith to learn from Will to
advance her police skills.

On this show, Will makes an astonished comment: How can you have a
son who is in college? Good question, given that the actress is 31.
Actually, the script is full of instances in which one character makes an
astonished comment to another character about some absurd inconsistent
plot or character development, clearly letting the audience know that
everybody is well aware of how bad the script is.

It's a good thing I held off on watching the pilot as episodes 1 and 2
cover the same case.

A girl attending a private high school, Emma (Aline O'Neill), has been
kidnapped. Her mother is Abigail (Jennifer Morrison), daughter of a
wealthy man who can afford to pay ransom. Her father is Paul Campano
(Mark-Paul Gosselar who has gotten older and fuller in the face but
demonstrated to casting directors in a crucial scene that he still has abs).
In yet another coincidence, Paul was ALSO in Will's group home and used
to beat him up. Don't worry. Later in the episode, Will takes advantage
of Paul's volatile temper to beat him up.

State police are called in for no particular reason because PLOT. City
cops do not give up jurisdiction.

Because STOOPID, city cops completely misread the crime scene and assign
blame to the wrong person, a teenage boy who had been friends with Emma
and her friend. Even more STOOPID: the now dead friend is misidentified
as Emma.

Abigail thought the teenage boy was attacking her and she ended up
pressing a tennis racket on his windpipe, but both she AND the cops
missed the incredibly obvious that the boy had been stabbed and was
about to bleed out. He fell on Abigail, wasn't attacking her.

The cops' theory was that the boy was the murderer, who had broken into
the house due to a broken window at the front door, but Will immediately
notices that the broken window was too far from the door knob.

The wife and husband's marriage has been in the toilet. The husband was
having repeated affair, the latest with a fitness instructor who looks
16, in fact, she looks like the dead friend. I thought perhaps a second
misidentification but the mistress isn't involved in the plot. But no
one looks too hard into the parents and how that could have led to the
crime.

There's still more coincidence: They use video surveillance to follow
the vehicle that probably has Emma in the trunk. It didn't make much
sense. Vehicles were exchanged next to a music studio. The sound
engineer is dyslexic! So is Trent, and when Trent gets agitated, he has
extreme difficulty reading. He takes notes by speaking into a recorder,
which is of course a cheat as the detective must narrate.

I realized what was wrong with the pilot: Every character Will
encounters, including Amanda, including Faith, acts in an extreme
manner. So do the other cops. So do the suspects. It comes off like
farce. Will starts off laconic, but then gets very emotional. There's no
subtlety.

Then Paul goes from extreme anger to concern, then despising Will then
seeking his cooperation, again with nothing in between. Every
character's emotional level serves the plot.

They have a gorgeous interrogation room. Attractive glass block windows
to let in light high on the walls. Parquet floor. Reasonably attractive
two-tone paint scheme. No metal loop for handcuff. That breaks cliche.

The second episode isn't much better, introducing the culprit. Columbo
like, Will agrees with Paul that he's the prime suspect.

On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> s
> p
> o
> i
> l
> e
> r
>
> s
> p
> a
> c
> e
>
> Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy one-note
> characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
> cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
> care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
> were even mentioned.
>
> In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
> camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
> perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.
>
> The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
> hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is in the
> main police building for the Atlanta police department for no particular
> reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
> cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great Sonja
> Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).
>
> Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
> which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
> should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
> anywhere.

Well, there's honest and then there's honest. I think a lot of honest
cops would prefer that any corruption be handled in house with quiet
forced resignations so the force isn't embarrassed.

On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

(SNIP blistering review of pilot)

When I saw the splash screen promo a couple of weeks ago showing Trent
in his 3-piece suit holding that stupid looking dog, I expected pretty
much what Adam described. Columbo-Monk-The Mentalist-et al with a heavy
dose of stupidity. And while I agree that there was a lot of plot,
dialogue, character and location stuff that made no sense, I rather
enjoyed the main character and his on/off girl friend. I also like the
partner although the manufactured friction might get tiresome soon.

There were occasional amusing lines, mostly from the o/o girlfriend and
I can even get by the new witness/character's pronoun requirements since
it's clearly being played for laughs.

We'll keep it on the list. I cannot say the same for Alert which has
become unbearable after 2 episodes.
--
Bill Idgerant
(Not a real person)

David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>> s
>> p
>> o
>> i
>> l
>> e
>> r
>>
>> s
>> p
>> a
>> c
>> e

>>Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy one-note
>>characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
>>cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
>>care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
>>were even mentioned.

>>In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
>>camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
>>perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.

>>The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
>>hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is in the
>>main police building for the Atlanta police department for no particular
>>reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
>>cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great Sonja
>>Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).

>>Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
>>which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
>>should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
>>anywhere.

>Well, there's honest and then there's honest. I think a lot of honest
>cops would prefer that any corruption be handled in house with quiet
>forced resignations so the force isn't embarrassed.

You have a moviePig act definition of "honest cop" there, Johnston. How
do you reconcile honesty and integrity and motivation to serve the
public trust with looking the other way concerning police officers who
betray the public trust, committing felonies? I know you're trolling me
but let's hear how you've reconciled that in your mind.

Bill Idgerant <Noname@fake.net> wrote:
>On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>(SNIP blistering review of pilot)

>When I saw the splash screen promo a couple of weeks ago showing Trent
>in his 3-piece suit holding that stupid looking dog, I expected pretty
>much what Adam described. Columbo-Monk-The Mentalist-et al with a heavy
>dose of stupidity. And while I agree that there was a lot of plot,
>dialogue, character and location stuff that made no sense, I rather
>enjoyed the main character and his on/off girl friend. I also like the
>partner although the manufactured friction might get tiresome soon.

>There were occasional amusing lines, mostly from the o/o girlfriend and
>I can even get by the new witness/character's pronoun requirements since
>it's clearly being played for laughs.

I didn't mind that so much, but even THAT character, who wasn't awful,
was made extreme in the script. She/they wasn't all that dysfunctionally
scared and waited hours and hours and hours to state that she saw the perp
disposing of the blunt instrument. What if the trash had been picked up
in the meantime?

>We'll keep it on the list. I cannot say the same for Alert which has
>become unbearable after 2 episodes.

I guess I'll give it another episode. I simply W/Qed Alert as that
sounded massively stupid.

On 2023-01-13 11:59 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>
>>> s
>>> p
>>> o
>>> i
>>> l
>>> e
>>> r
>>>
>>> s
>>> p
>>> a
>>> c
>>> e
>
>>> Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy one-note
>>> characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
>>> cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
>>> care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
>>> were even mentioned.
>
>>> In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
>>> camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
>>> perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.
>
>>> The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
>>> hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is in the
>>> main police building for the Atlanta police department for no particular
>>> reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
>>> cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great Sonja
>>> Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).
>
>>> Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
>>> which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
>>> should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
>>> anywhere.
>
>> Well, there's honest and then there's honest. I think a lot of honest
>> cops would prefer that any corruption be handled in house with quiet
>> forced resignations so the force isn't embarrassed.
>
> You have a moviePig act definition of "honest cop" there, Johnston. How
> do you reconcile honesty and integrity and motivation to serve the
> public trust with looking the other way concerning police officers who
> betray the public trust, committing felonies? I know you're trolling me
> but let's hear how you've reconciled that in your mind.

As I said, there's honest and then there's honest. I was talking about
the latter type of cop who won't personally exploit their position and
would like to see those who do forced out but consider publicity about
it to do more harm than good.

David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On 2023-01-13 11:59 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>>>> s
>>>> p
>>>> o
>>>> i
>>>> l
>>>> e
>>>> r
>>>>
>>>> s
>>>> p
>>>> a
>>>> c
>>>> e

>>>>Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy one-note
>>>>characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
>>>>cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
>>>>care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
>>>>were even mentioned.

>>>>In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
>>>>camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
>>>>perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.

>>>>The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
>>>>hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is in the
>>>>main police building for the Atlanta police department for no particular
>>>>reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
>>>>cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great Sonja
>>>>Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).

>>>>Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
>>>>which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
>>>>should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
>>>>anywhere.

>>>Well, there's honest and then there's honest. I think a lot of honest
>>>cops would prefer that any corruption be handled in house with quiet
>>>forced resignations so the force isn't embarrassed.

>>You have a moviePig act definition of "honest cop" there, Johnston. How
>>do you reconcile honesty and integrity and motivation to serve the
>>public trust with looking the other way concerning police officers who
>>betray the public trust, committing felonies? I know you're trolling me
>>but let's hear how you've reconciled that in your mind.

>As I said, there's honest and then there's honest. I was talking about
>the latter type of cop who won't personally exploit their position and
>would like to see those who do forced out but consider publicity about
>it to do more harm than good.

Another cop, either internal affairs or from an outside agency in the
case of the backstory on this episode, investigates the felony and
prepares a report recommending felony charges. The only way to avoid
adverse publicity is not to have investigated the felony as part of the
process of recommending felony charges.

Your "and then there's honest" cop wants a coverup that a felony had
been committed in the first place. If there's a coverup, then not only
will there be no charges filed, the felonious cop remains a cop till he
retires.

Do you see what you're saying, Johnston?

On 2023-01-14 12:38 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On 2023-01-13 11:59 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>> David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>
>>>>> s
>>>>> p
>>>>> o
>>>>> i
>>>>> l
>>>>> e
>>>>> r
>>>>>
>>>>> s
>>>>> p
>>>>> a
>>>>> c
>>>>> e
>
>>>>> Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy one-note
>>>>> characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
>>>>> cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
>>>>> care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
>>>>> were even mentioned.
>
>>>>> In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
>>>>> camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
>>>>> perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.
>
>>>>> The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
>>>>> hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is in the
>>>>> main police building for the Atlanta police department for no particular
>>>>> reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
>>>>> cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great Sonja
>>>>> Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).
>
>>>>> Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
>>>>> which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
>>>>> should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
>>>>> anywhere.
>
>>>> Well, there's honest and then there's honest. I think a lot of honest
>>>> cops would prefer that any corruption be handled in house with quiet
>>>> forced resignations so the force isn't embarrassed.
>
>>> You have a moviePig act definition of "honest cop" there, Johnston. How
>>> do you reconcile honesty and integrity and motivation to serve the
>>> public trust with looking the other way concerning police officers who
>>> betray the public trust, committing felonies? I know you're trolling me
>>> but let's hear how you've reconciled that in your mind.
>
>> As I said, there's honest and then there's honest. I was talking about
>> the latter type of cop who won't personally exploit their position and
>> would like to see those who do forced out but consider publicity about
>> it to do more harm than good.
>
> Another cop, either internal affairs or from an outside agency in the
> case of the backstory on this episode, investigates the felony and
> prepares a report recommending felony charges. The only way to avoid
> adverse publicity is not to have investigated the felony as part of the
> process of recommending felony charges.
>
> Your "and then there's honest" cop wants a coverup that a felony had
> been committed in the first place. If there's a coverup, then not only
> will there be no charges filed, the felonious cop remains a cop till he
> retires.

A forced retirement to avoid being charged.

>
> Do you see what you're saying, Johnston?

I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying it's common.

On 1/13/2023 2:30 PM, David Johnston wrote:
> On 2023-01-13 11:59 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>> David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> On 2023-01-12 1:58 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>
>>>> s
>>>> p
>>>> o
>>>> i
>>>> l
>>>> e
>>>> r
>>>>
>>>> s
>>>> p
>>>> a
>>>> c
>>>> e
>>
>>>> Yet another poorly-done police procedural overloaded with lousy
>>>> one-note
>>>> characters, but with a somewhat interesting mystery. This time, the
>>>> cliched detective haunted HAUNTED by his past had grown up in foster
>>>> care. I don't recall what they said about his birth parents, if they
>>>> were even mentioned.
>>
>>>> In addition to the lousy script, the director does that "rotate the
>>>> camera around the character's head without showing the viewer another
>>>> perspective on the scene" crap. It was done repeatedly.
>>
>>>> The title character is Ramon Rodriguez, older and with closely cropped
>>>> hair. He works for the Georgia state police. Their headquarters is
>>>> in the
>>>> main police building for the Atlanta police department for no
>>>> particular
>>>> reason other than DRAMA (they all share elevator rides) and saving the
>>>> cost of building another set. His boss is Amanda Wagner (the great
>>>> Sonja
>>>> Sohn in a role that she'll just be phoning in).
>>
>>>> Trent is hated by city cops because of a case he recently solved in
>>>> which city cops were guilty of corruption. Apparently they feel Trent
>>>> should have covered it up, 'cuz there are simply no honest cops
>>>> anywhere.
>>
>>> Well, there's honest and then there's honest.  I think a lot of honest
>>> cops would prefer that any corruption be handled in house with quiet
>>> forced resignations so the force isn't embarrassed.
>>
>> You have a moviePig act definition of "honest cop" there, Johnston. How
>> do you reconcile honesty and integrity and motivation to serve the
>> public trust with looking the other way concerning police officers who
>> betray the public trust, committing felonies? I know you're trolling me
>> but let's hear how you've reconciled that in your mind.
>
> As I said, there's honest and then there's honest.  I was talking about
> the latter type of cop who won't personally exploit their position and
> would like to see those who do forced out but consider publicity about
> it to do more harm than good.
>
Personally I have to strongly disagree with that belief. I am certain
it does more harm to leave the corrupt officers in place. And I also
suspect it isn't really the motive to stay quiet. Fear of retribution
or being shunned plays a large part in such decisions. Its also
"passing the buck". If the corrupt officers were going to be forced out
they most likely already would have been.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.