Battle Creek

This show feels a lot more like "Castle" than like "Breaking Bad," and just about anyone who has watched "Castle" should recognize its formula by now. Rather than slow developments designed to build lots of tension, this show has so many twists and turns of plot in one episode, that you may not even have time to think much about what is happening. So there is very little tension in it because everything goes by fast, and over all, that makes for very light viewing. Moreover, despite its setting and some of its characters, its grittiness is mild, and instead of the boundary-pushing edginess of "Breaking Bad," it has moments when it is even a bit campy. Yet the quality of the stories and the acting are pretty good, probably better than we had with "Castle." And in sum, it is kind of like television's equivalent to comfort food: Not challenging, but easy and familiar.

"Battle Creek" is a new show starring Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters. Duhamel plays an FBI agent who becomes part of a police department in Battle Creek, Michigan, where the methods are a little old-fashioned. His bitter partner (Winters) resents Duhamel's perfection and popularity with the ladies.

So far the plots have been very imaginative and funny. In the first show, a baby monitor had to be used to pick up a conversation. In the second, the guys went after a maple syrup cartel after someone drowned in maple syrup. Discussing the sting operation, one of the guys said, "I'll get a bottle of Log Cabin. We can use those as tasting samplers and then just deliver water." When they deliver the syrup (which Duhamel insists be pure and the best on the market), the tasting -- using a crepe - was like a scene out of Breaking Bad, except with syrup instead of meth.

As far as this show taking place in Battle Creek, if a show took place in my home town and wasn't filmed there, I'd be unhappy too; also, it's presented as a back woods place, which I'm sure isn't true. Hollywood does this all the time -- Boston Legal, Provincetown - and it's just to make the locale different from L.A. or NY. Meanwhile, there's no indication at all that the characters really live and work in that city.

I hope it lasts. A nice cast, including Janet McTeer and Aubrey Dollar.

Though all the initial episodes were fine, they were not special by any means. With each episode, as we get to know the characters, the show seems to be growing on me. The friction between the two main characters has been played out well and with each episode dealing with past secrets or personal lives, the show gets interesting and promises to be special. The supporting characters have not yet been fully involved and some of them seem promising enough. The performances of most of the cast is fine. But, Dean Winters and Josh Duhamel have been very good along with the girl who plays Holly. I like the way the show does not limit itself to being only a comedy or drama.

The last episode is not really a finale but it does clear up the main question everyone was wondering all along. At least it won't leave you mad like some one season shows. I watched one a while back that ended with a cop facing an impossible moral decision and the screen goes to black and you hear a gun shot.

I always liked Dean Winters with his wise cracking attitude and he was the best thing about this show. It is worth the time to watch. They don't overdo the comedy angle. It's not a comedy show about cops; it's a cop show with some pretty funny moments at times. It also limits the blood and gore to fairly brief shots.

There are so many networks producing original programming that even decent shows like this one gets pulled at the first sign of a ratings drop. In the days when there were just 3 and 4 networks they would consider the quality of the program before canceling. A lot of the greatest classic series had poor ratings in the beginning. Now they think a season is 13 or even 10 episodes. They will kill the show without even airing episodes they have already taped. Or else they burn them off Saturday evening two at a time when most other channels are showing sports.

I have seen other cop shows about the same quality last several years. Too many series that have real potential like this are not given a chance.

I don't know why in the Genre it doesn't say Comedy ,

with a cast like Josh Duhamel, Dean Winters, Kal Penn and Grapevine !! they're all amazingly funny.

The storyline is amazing ,, the tension between "Special Agent Milton" and "Detective Russ Agnew" is hilarious ,, one with this perfect life ,,FBI .. and the the other just lives in "Battle Creek" and trying to prove that his methods of dealing with people are better that the fancy ones by the Bureau.

The Pilot was really good,, the crime writing was also unexpectedly good,, i hope it stays on that track..

P.S : CBS last year was done with "How i met your mother" and "two and a half men" along with the cancellation of many comedy shows like "The McCarthys, The Millers and The Crazy Ones for Robin Williams "they have "Scorpion" running with good ratings where the have the Thriller factor and some comedy,, but still this show is a nice step up in the comedy bits ,, i think it might get it's place on CBS even better than "Scorpion",, who knows ! ;).