S01.E01: Pilot

[DearEvette]

Quote

Deputy Inspector Regina Haywood, the newly promoted boss of the 74th Precinct in East New York - a working-class neighborhood on the edge of Brooklyn in the midst of social upheaval and the early seeds of gentrification. With family ties to the area, Haywood is determined to deploy creative methods to protect her beloved community with the help of her officers and detectives. But first, she has the daunting task of getting them on board, as some are skeptical of her promotion, and others resist the changes she is desperate to make. Regina Haywood has a vision: she and the squad of the 74th Precinct will not only serve their community - they'll also become part of it.

Airs October 2nd on CBS

[OLynn33]

I liked it. Yep I'm in.

[possibilities]

I'm so conflicted about shows like this. On the one hand, I like the lead and I like seeing people actually try to do the right thing and reform where reform is needed. So I consider the show aspirational.

But I also know "copaganda" contributes to problems, so I also consider watching a show like this to be a guilty pleasure.

[magicdog]

Already seeing the leaks in this boat:

Wannabe boss who wants to make changes - check.

Wants at some some of her people to live in a dump housing project so they can get to know the neighborhood - check.

When one volunteers, it's marked "PIG" on the front door.  Yeah, subtle.  That also means you're marked and it's a matter of time before someone kills you - check.

Said officer says she herself lived in public housing with a junkie single mother - check.

Silly underling who is thrilled to get a vintage car with "fine Corinthian leather" - a joke which has been done to death - check.

Detectives who throw their weight around a person they're interviewing and automatically accuse him of having something to hide - check.

A police station which looks bright and impeccably painted and appealing - check. 

[SunnyBeBe]

I watched the trailer and thought it looked good.  I’ll check it out.  I’m a big Smits fan, so….  

Edited October 3, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[KLovestoShop]

Didn't like it at all.  Never could stand Richard Kind.  He always plays such a bumbling idiot.  Always loved Jimmy Smits, but if he's not on very much, it's a mistake.  Didn't like the detective duo, nor the cop who volunteered to live in a dump apartment.  Sorry but I just don't think the woman playing Haywood is a good actress.  She's so forced and wooden.  If she requires her unit to live in East NY, she can't do that.  Yes, she started asking for volunteers, but I can see her telling her cops that they need to live in East NY. You can't force people to sell their homes and move just because your boss tells them to.  Cops have unions and something like this would have to be negotiated  a superior cannot force their employees to live where she tells them to live.  

[possibilities]

She asked for volunteers. She didn't ask anyone to sell their house. Since the rent is free, they could keep their previous home and still live there, and consider it a work rotation. I don't see anything wrong with it. I actually think that spending time with the actual residents of the neighborhood you are supposed to be protecting and serving is a damn good idea. It helps you get to know them and understand their problems. It makes you better at knowing what's going on before it gets to a crisis point. If you win trust, people will help you do your job rather than seeing you as an ineffectual force that only comes in when it's too late and is ineffective at actually preventing trouble from happening.

People who think they are better than the locals inevitably become obnoxious troublemakers and terrible at their jobs. 

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

She asked for volunteers. She didn't ask anyone to sell their house. Since the rent is free, they could keep their previous home and still live there, and consider it a work rotation. I don't see anything wrong with it. I actually think that spending time with the actual residents of the neighborhood you are supposed to be protecting and serving is a damn good idea. It helps you get to know them and understand their problems. It makes you better at knowing what's going on before it gets to a crisis point. If you win trust, people will help you do your job rather than seeing you as an ineffectual force that only comes in when it's too late and is ineffective at actually preventing trouble from happening.

People who think they are better than the locals inevitably become obnoxious troublemakers and terrible at their jobs. 

Plus, living as neighbors can be a good way to dispel fear of one another.

[mojito]

I'm in for now. I liked the various characters and their relationships with each other and hope they all keep it professional. One big draw for me was Richard Kind being cast in a drama. I like a quirky secondary character. I also like that the cast isn't full of twenty or even thirty-somethings.

[amarante]

I thought this was a good pilot. Pilots are extremely hard to do because you have to introduce the characters with enough exposition of their stories so that there is some kind of understanding by the audience plus have a storyline. 

Now that almost every show is available for streaming I really like going back to watch the pilots of older shows to see how brilliantly some of them achieve this. There are writers and directors who specialize in pilots and are paid huge sums for their services - everyone gets paid more for a pilot and of course the really major players get either Pay or Play or even better Pay AND Play

You also need to impress the networks and the advertisers which includes convincing them there are at least 100 stories - enough for at least 100 episodes which is historically the minimum to maximize syndication revenues

Edited October 4, 2022 by amarante

[EtheltoTillie]

I liked it. Good detective stories. Richard Kind for once was actually not a bumbler, although I’ll grant that he was a noodnik with his classic car auction. But for the love of Pete, how do you explain the bat stealing?  How would he not get caught?  

[shapeshifter]

59 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

how do you explain the bat stealing?

My first guess is that bat-stealing cop Detective Tommy Killian (who apparently noticed the bat in a bar where he was moonlighting as a bouncer) justifies the theft in his own mind with a story that he’s liberating or repatriating the bat——rather than stealing it——by giving it to a Black restaurant owner since the bat originally belonged to baseball great Roy Campanella, and never mind that white Detective Killian is thereby profiting more than $30K worth of down payment on a restaurant so he can not be upstaged by his wealthy white father-in-law.

IDK.🤷🏻‍♀️ Maybe Detective Killian thinks he’s entitled to a finder’s fee, in part because he’s a poor Irish cop and the restaurant owner is a Black man who has done well——never mind that restaurant work is long grueling hours too. There was a throwaway line where Killian’s female, minority partner accuses him of being prejudiced against their new female Black boss with: “She'll always be a diversity hire as far as you're concerned, right?”

Or maybe Catholic Irish cop figures it’s fair because original baseball bat owner Campanella was half Catholic Italian——which would be yet another big stretch of justification.

Or maybe “Zev,” the owner of the restaurant where Killian bounces, is doing a lot of illegal crap, and Killian sees the bat as payment for looking the other way.

Ugh. I detest all these scenarios, but maybe the writers can spin it so I don’t quit the show.

Edited October 5, 2022 by shapeshifter

[EtheltoTillie]

@shapeshifter, that's some great creative storytelling.  Thank you.  Also, seems you agree with me that the bat plot made no sense.  He hasn't been shown as a dirty cop . . . so WTF?  Also he left fingerprints all over the bat case and he was seen coming in to "pick something up."  Duh.

Edited October 5, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[shapeshifter]

7 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

He hasn't been shown as a dirty cop . . . so WTF? 

Well, we haven't seen Killian is "dirty" per se, at least not yet, but Deputy Inspector Regina Haywood had to tell Killian and his partner to stop the interview when the suspect asked for a lawyer, after which they gave her some BS about how they were going to "eventually" get him a lawyer, right? And a cop whose moonlighting as a bouncer always seems like a hint that something is amiss, even though in Castle, Ryan was just doing it to offset new baby expenses. 
So Killian may not be "dirty," but he probably has a loose interpretation of what is legal.

[possibilities]

I thought they established he and his partner are both dirty. 

But stealing the bat was not just dirty, it was reckless. Surely it will lead to trouble when it's found in possession of the guy he gave it to, and then what? He's setting up that guy to take the fall. 

[shapeshifter]

38 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Surely it will lead to trouble when it's found in possession of the guy he gave it to, and then what? He's setting up that guy to take the fall.

Oooo. I didn’t consider that outcome, but maybe 🤔 

——except weren’t there witnesses who saw the detective trade the bat for the restaurant?

[Snazzy Daisy]

I am 50/50 about this show.

The only actors that I like are Jimmy Smits and CS Lee.

Don’t like Richard Kind. Don’t like Kevin Rankin since Unforgettable days.

Amanda Warren as the lead - not really compelling.

[possibilities]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

weren’t there witnesses who saw the detective trade the bat for the restaurant?

Hmmmn... now I can't remember. But it seems like that would be even more reckless, if he traded it with witnesses. The bat is surely easily identified, and he was seen in the bar it was taken from shortly before it was taken.

[Madding crowd]

I watched because of Jimmy Smits and I hope he will be a bigger part of the action going forward. The bat thing drove me crazy. What happens when the owner reports it stolen and someone remembers seeing it at the other restaurant? Something unusual like that would be on the news or somewhere online. Not sure ai like any of the characters yet but will give it another try.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I watched because of Jimmy Smits and I hope he will be a bigger part of the action going forward. The bat thing drove me crazy. What happens when the owner reports it stolen and someone remembers seeing it at the other restaurant? Something unusual like that would be on the news or somewhere online. Not sure ai like any of the characters yet but will give it another try.

I’m assuming the bat stealing detective believes he was entitled to it in some way. 
Hopefully it will be clarified soon.

[luna1122again]

I have an abiding, almost obsessive affection for NYPD Blue, so though I don't watch a lot of procedural type dramas, or cop shows, I had to tune into this one. Jimmy Smits back on the beat in NYC? I am there. And the opening scenes, with all the quick cuts of NYC, and then both Smits and Scott Cohen, who was in a multi-episode arc of NYPD Blue, together again? I nearly cried, I'm not going to lie. 

Anyway, I liked it. I'm not that familiar with Amanda Warren, but I like her world-weariness and her intelligence here. I like the supporting cast, mostly, tho I'm already tired of Kevin Rankin's Tommy. I didn't realize Richard Kind was so divisive, I've just always liked him and his inherent weirdness, and I do here as well. And Smits can do literally no wrong for me. 

Anyway, I'm kind of hooked already. 

[andromeda331]

I'm in for now I love Jimmy Smits, Richard Kind and Captain Montgomery I mean Ruben Santiago-Hudson. I do like Regina. 

[juliet73]

I'm in. 

I liked that the cops were various ages and they looked like actual people.  I'm so tired of the plastic surgery "Hollywood" looking police force who wear a ton of makeup and look barely old enough to legally drink - looking at you CSI, Rookie Feds, Quantico, Shades of Blue, etc.

I could do without Detective Killian and the restaurant drama.  I hate when TV spouses are completely in the dark about their own finances.  If it's going to be his wife's restaurant, why can't she apply for a loan?  Why can't her dad loan her the money and/or be an investor?  If he's stealing the bat to show that he's dirty, I think there could have been a better way of going about it.

There's always at least one person at any job who is a odd and socially awkward, and I think Richard Kind's character is that person and he's is playing it well.

Edited October 27, 2022 by juliet73

[Dowel Jones]

13 hours ago, juliet73 said:

Quantico,

You dare cast aspersions on The Hair???

[CheshireCat]

On 10/26/2022 at 11:29 PM, juliet73 said:

I liked that the cops were various ages and they looked like actual people.  I'm so tired of the plastic surgery "Hollywood" looking police force who wear a ton of makeup and look barely old enough to legally drink - looking at you CSI, Rookie Feds, Quantico, Shades of Blue, etc.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy the British TV show Midsummer Murders. Everyone looks real.

I saw the trailer, wanted to check it out then forgot about it and remembered it a few days ago. As some of the others, I have mixed feelings about it because of the clichés. Of course, a woman and especially a woman of color will face the doubt Regina's facing but why do it always have to be the white, often male, slightly crooked cops?

And a Deputy Mayor who's protecting the rich and powerful and doubtful about the new hire? How original. I'm sure there are plenty like that out there but I'm also sure you'll find a few who would actually be supportive of their people rather than the rich and powerful and it could be interesting to show that as well. (But probably not as easy to write about as the scripts have to be written and can't be copied).

What's bothering me the most is probably that Detective Killian played Very Dirty Cop Malcolm on Lucifer, so I automatically assume the worst now. The way they started out with him doesn't help.

Some aspects of the show feel like The Chicago Code but it's early and could change by the next episode. I'll definitely keep watching as I like the overall premise and the characters in general.