Dark Blue

The script is not bad, the directing and all not bad either ... but although Dylan McDermott was brilliant--if not perfect--in playing his character in every setting in The Practice, Lt Carter Shaw in Dark Blue is one role which should never have been offered to him/which he should never have accepted.

Let us face it, nearly every actor/actress has roles they cannot possibly play convincingly--Streep can pull off Sophie's Choice, The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia, but that does not mean that everyone else can.

If you adore Dylan McDermott even if he just sat there watching paint dry, then there is no reason for you not to enjoy Dark Blue. But if you are the type of viewer who is distracted by actors playing roles which do not suit them--as in Michael Weston in BURN NOTICE Season 3-Episode 5 "Signals and Codes"--then you will be distracted throughout much of Dark Blue.

This format works for other shows like NYPD Blue, CSI, Law & Order, etc. but I think it really limits a cop show about undercover police officers. Even more so because "Dark Blue" also promises to focus regularly on the characters' personal lives. I don't see how they can do this effectively if they rush through each and every episode. The pilot episode felt so rushed that I felt as if I could hardly keep up with what was happening. The Franzine character, who according to Detective Shaw was "a jack of all trades", could've easily lasted for several more episodes before being wiped out. The writing and the dialog seemed off! I hope the writers realize they can cover a lot more ground with story lines and characters by stretching things out a little.

internet haters crawl out of the woodwork on this one... wow, maybe they should watch more than 5 minutes of something before they write a comment....

most of the TV series that have been most engrossing for me have been tough to get in sync with, then after a couple of episodes, I save em on tivo and am a devoted fan for years... Dark Blue is one of these..

It's imperfect as most are, cramming a case per episode is a little contrary to the serious nature of the delivery and feels rushed for example... but everything else is spot on... the actors do themselves great credit with interesting and fresh delivery of a overdone genre...

Well shot, well acted, a better emotional hook than other TV crime shows.. can't wait to see it through.....

EDIT: Season 2 update....

With Season 2 well under way and the addition of Battlestar Galactica alumni Tricia Helfer, Dark Blue has really taken off. Season long subplot arcs have been added and it puts the show over the edge for a long run. It truly feels like a great show now...

Unconventional LAPD officer Lt. Carter Shaw (Dylan McDermott) leads an undercover unit employing questionable tactics. Ty Curtis (Omari Hardwick) is struggling to maintain both his work and his marriage to Melissa. Dean Bendis (Logan Marshall-Green) is on the edge of his dark side. Carter recruits Jaimie Allen (Nicki Aycox) into the team counting on her abilities to lie such as her new identity hiding from her criminal past. In the second season, they are joined by FBI agent Alex Rice (Tricia Helfer).

This show relies on a dark crime gangster sense in a police procedural. It's very manufactured at times. Luckily, McDermott has the intensity to pull it off. The gangster lowlife sensibility gets a bit tired. I like Nicki Aycox's storyline. However, the rest of it blends into one giant mishmash of tough guy bravado.

When I first sat down to watch this show I was expecting another formulaic, "fast and loose with the rules but always just on the right side of the line" cop show. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised.

Dark Blue is indeed refreshingly dark; the characters are predictably tortured souls with an interesting mix of personalities and histories that add to the depth of the plot lines, they are all superbly written and acted to the degree that sometimes the plot becomes something of a happenstance as we follow the personal journeys of the protagonists.

the plots themselves have all been seen before in numerous guises, but Dark Blue puts a new and slightly twisted slant on them that can fool you into thinking that you have never seen them before, but it is worth remembering that the case is not really the important thing here; it is what the case does to the characters that defines the show.

All in all, I would recommend this show to anyone who wants to watch a new and gritty take on a genre that has not yet been pushed to these limits.