On Call

Title kinda says it. Pretty well written characters on both sides of the law. Plot line is wild but kinda realistic. Really solid acting across the board. Even the minor characters are pretty great.

The story takes place in Long Beach's port, beaches, and cultural hotspots as well as the slums and homeless camps. I think it does a good job of featuring the city as a backdrop for the diverse mix of characters portrayed.

My only issue is the show chooses to not translate Spanish even when it helps the story. I end up doing a little google auto translate to keep up. My Spanish is too poor to keep up.

On Call follows the police force in Long Beach, California and all they have to go through protecting and serving the community. It mostly follows a pair of police officers (Trojan Bellisario and Brandon Larracuente) as they respond to call after call on their daily shift. I have to say that I really enjoyed this even more than I expected too. I was just looking for a show to kill some time with and what I found is one of the better cop shows I've seen this year. It's too gritty for network tv so don't expect a show like the ones you see all the time. This is a raw and believable show on what cops have to go through on a daily basis. The episodes are short at a half hour apiece but they pack plenty of excitement in that half hour.

There are so many police procedurals that are out there to choose from that one has to really stick out if it's going to be worth your time to watch. Well, On Call is one of those police series that's absolutely worth the time to watch. It's been getting compared to the ridiculously underrated Southland because of the way the show is shot, and while it's not as good as Southland, it's still pretty good show. The first season consists of only 8 30min episodes so it's an easy binge. I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a new entertaining police series that's both original and entertaining. I hope we get several seasons of this series.

I really enjoyed this, binge watched the entire season in one run. Lots of Southland vibes (although not as good in my opinion), and nice to see a strong female lead who isn't some ridiculous looking femme fatale, a stereotype which Hollywood still seem to struggle with.

However I do think it got a little action movie toward the end, the last few episodes seemed rushed and some shootout screnes a bit too wild west. Harmon's old training officer came across very wooden on screen, not the best acting and the interactions between the two seemed very out of place compared to other performances such as the in car scenes where Harmon and Diaz are talking.

Overall a great watch but I think they need to push a little further in season 2 for this one to stick around.

Rookie officer, Diaz, joins the Long Beach police department, and is under the watchful eye of Officer Harmon (Troian Bellisario powerful as ever), who just had one of her past trainee's gunned down. So on the hunt they go for the high-profile killer in what seems to be another typical police series. But the series makers have viewers on edge, never showing the officers private lives, but always on patrol in the concrete jungle of Long Beach, by using jarring handheld images, body-cams, security cameras and the likes as officers navigate the hellish pit of a society unkind to itself. Also the dynamics among the officers is well built-up and handled, never knowing who to trust. A giant learning curve for the rookie, and an intense observational experience for us viewers...