DARK BLUE: 1.01 “The Pilot”
I have two main points about TNT’s newest show Dark Blue. 1) It has an interesting premise. 2) It takes itself way two seriously.
Let’s discuss #1. It’s actually very interesting. We’re looking at people who are catching criminals in the act. But instead of being the typical procedural, we’re looking at the undercover detectives. They’re not only going undercover as a job, but their entire selves go undercover. Cops and the FBI don’t know these people are even part of the police force, and when they come home, their wives have to ask them who they are.
And as we saw in this episode, it’s scary–scary in the sense that you could go over to the dark side and never return. The main question for the episode was whether Dean was actually still good or whether he’d turned bad.
Now, this was a question I think we could all ask. He did dump a body. He did watch someone get electricuted. He did let someone take a bullet to the head right in front of him.
But what’s he to do? If he were to cry out or stop them, his cover would be blown, and he’d be the first one dead. It’s a rough spot to be put in. It definitely brings about some questions that need to be answered: What’s right? What’s wrong? How far is too far?
And that’s where point #2 goes. It just takes the idea too far. I think part of this might be the fault of Dylan McDermott. As much as I try to like him, ever since The Practice, he’s been taking everything that’s written in a script and presenting it as his Emmy Award-winning drama piece. Dark Blue is no different.
The show itself, too, tries to make the events in the episode too real, too. They present the stakes as life and death–and sure, sometimes it is, but to constantly do it throughout the episode presents some feeling of falsehood and a lack of reality. It’s too forced.
Let’s compare it to Southland, for example. Southland makes sure you know that the events presented are real–true to life. But the people are real, too. They laugh, they get emotional, they react. Dark Blue presents only the tension, the fact that this case and this case alone is what matters. Nothing else. Only one character in the show seemed to think otherwise, and that’s Ty.
Ty, unlike the rest of the cast, has a wife. He hasn’t broken himself off from the rest of the world as Carter has. Or even as Jaimie has (though I am intrigued by her backstory). But apparently, just doing that isn’t enough. As I mentioned before, his wife asks him who he’ll be when he returns to her–not exactly something you’d hear in real life.
So I think this show needs a little more work. Maybe it’s just trying to be intense to grab the crowds. Or to make itself legitimate against the many other procedurals out there. I don’t know. I’ll give it another shot, but it might be my last.
