King & Maxwell

Firstly I loved The Closer, especially Jon Tenny and 99% of the other cast members, so seeing him in this, with Major Crimes taking over from The Closer is manna from heaven for me.

King and Maxwell are to ex secret service agents who partner up as PI's with a difference. King isn't all that worried about making money or bending the rules a bit as long as they get the job done. Maxwell tends to follow a similar vein, but is more head strong and bossy. The chemistry between the actors is easy to see and they bring this out in their characters which makes for fun and interesting viewing. For me this is Castle with a twist.

Quirky is how I found the first episode and admittedly I have now seen the second episode prior to this review and I will be continuing to watch this show with interest. The continuing involvement of Edgar (as I had hoped after the pilot) will make the show even more interesting and fun, but maybe a little predictable, time will tell.

A recommended show for me and I hope it continues in the vein of the first two episodes.

8/10

Sadly I just learned that King & Maxwell was cancelled. I thought it was a great adaptation of Baldacci's books. Edgar being my favorite character portrayed wonderfully by Ryan Hurst. Jon Tenney has never disappointed and I felt Rebecca Romijn worked well with Tenney. The comic banter is done quite well and we were just getting to see inner personalities develop. The writing is well done and set choices appropriate. Perhaps if we viewers are lucky someone else will pick it up. We are being inundated with idiotic reality shows like the new Chrisley show, its embarrassing to watch people make fools of themselves. THere are some pretty dumb fictional shows as well. What audience are they polling because no one ever asks me or anyone I know, and I hear people complain all the time about the volume of intelligence insulting reality shows.

Ton Tenney and Rebecca Romjin made very good co-stars in this short lived series. They seems to gel quite well and with time even more chemistry could be found.

Interesting stories, well directed and acted. It would have been nice to give this series a bit more time.

Recommended.

Jon Tenney fresh from being an FBI agent and married to Kyra Sedgwick in The Closer and Rebecca Romjin fresh from being married to John Stamos in real life co-star in a new television King&Maxwell. The two are former Secret Service agents who had two tragedies break on them while on the job. Now they're private detectives and in addition Tenney is a lawyer.

Being both a PI and an attorney opens up a whole lot of story possibilities. Tenney can be a lawyer and he can have Romjin do his investigating and occasionally lend her a hand. On The Closer Tenney was a recovering alcoholic and he continues in the same guise here.

Romjin and Tenney looked comfortable working together. Working out of WAshington, DC also opens up all kinds of possibilities for political intrigue in their cases as well.

I hope the show finds an audience.

It's probably unfair to be comparing a series that's 8 episodes old with one that's past the ton, but it's probably inevitable considering its niche.

So far, as a crime comedy series, it seems nice and perky. Nothing wildly challenging; but then again it doesn't take itself too seriously, so it would be churlish to be super picky - although the writers do sometimes go overboard with the "cutesy" dialogue.

The leads are good - it's nice to see Jon Tenney in a lead role, and Rebecca Romijn is a pleasant surprise as the feisty, competitive Mrs-Peel-for-the-2010s - but the real standouts are the satellite characters of Edgar (Ryan Hurst) and Benny (Dichen Lachmann). I certainly hope they're developed more.

I also like the gradually emerging subplot of the mystery behind the assassination that got Sean kicked out of the SS (interesting initials those - and actually used that way in the program); but I hope they add a bit more depth to our heroes, and maybe explore the possibilities of "enhanced friendship" between Sean and Michelle.

So: Not bad - I've certainly seen worse - but not quite in 'Castle' territory yet.

7/10 right now; and I hope it gets better, because I'll be watching.