Doesn’t it feel great when a show just pulls it all together, and starts flying high? Well, six episodes in, and Dark Blue has the goods in spades. This is one hot property, and if you’re not tuning in, you’re missing out.
Sure, not everything’s perfect (more on that later). But something about last night’s episode just screamed hit to me. I’m excited; I feel like a part of something really special.
The biggest questions I continue to have are with the undercover setups, and with Ty. While the latter fits in with the rest of show in an ensemble, complementary sort of way, the former still really sticks out as being a thematic flaw that could one day bite Dark Blue in the butt.
In addition to whatever else has come before, last night brought up some additional issues with the undercover work our team does: first of all, either the covers aren’t being built-out deep enough, or we’re continually meant to believe they’re not for the drama. Now, I get the importance of the unknown for a show, but wondering whether or not Carter managed to secure a business card, or an office for his character just left me feeling as if they do shoddy work. Not cool when your life’s on the line.
Second, don’t they ever worry that they’ll bump into some of these people going forward? Meaning, why continuously burn your cover’s bridges, when you inevitably will be back playing in criminal waters come next week? Dean, Ty and Carter could have all been arrested with the marks, managing to maintain their covers if ever there was a reason to call upon them again (like Ty needed to in the pilot). Yeah, Dean needed to have that moment with his buddy, but isn’t it more believable that the unit would routinely get swept up in the arrests, and then float out the back door at some later point in time?
And to Ty — I still see him as a huge liability on this team. His wife (and the baby she wants to have) ties his hands and forces him into some very uncomfortable situations. If he needs to sleep with someone to solidify his cover, then he should be prepared to do it. Marriage should not have changed how he does his job, or else he shouldn’t have gotten married, or he should request a transfer. His new set of boundaries puts his entire team at risk, and it only makes me dislike a character that I really otherwise enjoy.
And, what, all of a sudden Dean’s a bleeding heart? It was so out-of-character for him to worry about the fence. We certainly don’t need two members of the unit hesitant to do their jobs.
On an extremely different topic, how crazy was it that “The Rippers” require members to play Russian Roulette before they can leave the group? Dan is one sick puppy … but I was kind of hoping the guy would shoot himself in the head. First of all, it would have put Carter and Ty in an extremely difficult situation. Second, the bullet’s never in the chamber, and I pegged Dark Blue as the type of show to go against script. Guess not.
Of course there are always tweaks that can be made, but Dark Blue is officially TNT’s newest hit series. You heard it here first.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 20, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
