Yeah, my dad was a cop in the 70s and 80s, and he often said reality was a mix of Barney Miller and Hill Street Blues.
I remember in one of William Shatner's books (I think it was his autobiography, but don't hold me to that) he was talking about a conversation he had with an actual cop back while TJ Hooker was on the air. The cop commented about how the cops on the show were doing "police work" as he put, on a weekly basis, and that it was the exciting kind of "police work" which involved getting into gunfights and catching bad guys. He then said that in the run of a year he and his other fellow cops only do actual "police work" twice, and half the time it's writing tickets.
Agreed on the timing. It's feeling a little more natural. I'm still not sold on the Asst. DA. In episode 2, during the key dropping scene, she was kinda staring off into eternity and wasn't really engaged in the scene, or reacting naturally. It was fairly obvious on rewatch. I'm hoping for improvement there. Otherwise it's been really good fun.
Odd... the episode hasn't shown up on NBC.com yet. Quantum Leap episodes are always up by the next morning.
Every time people talk about cop shows, I always love to bring up my favorite urban legend, which is not in fact an urban legend because it actually happened: It's about Night Heat, which is one of my favorite cop shows of all time. Night Heat was, AFAIK, the first Canadian TV series broadcast in America. It was filmed in Toronto, but they wanted American viewers to like the show as well so they never actually said, in any episode, which city it takes place in (although it's totally obvious that the city is in fact Toronto - hell, the CN Tower even appears in one episode!). Nobody is ever seen handling money, there are no flags shown, and American police ranks like "Lieutenant" and "Captain" are used. Also the cops work out of "precincts" (as in the US), not "divisions" like Canadian police do. Anyhoo...Canadian cities, on the average, tend to be cleaner than ours. So before one shoot, they had to dress the set with garbage and graffiti. They took their time getting the set to look suitably run down, then they took a meal break. When the crew got back, they found that helpful Canadian passersby (not realizing that it was a set) had come by and cleaned up the area on their own. (It's' even more funny than that bit about a real life criminal, on the run from the law, stumbling across the filming of an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street and actually surrendering to the actors, thinking they were real cops. )
Yea it just takes some time to improve. That was a bit odd. Hope she gets better. Word. Just a nice gem so far. It's nice to find something that I can watch and just relax.
Okay, it's finally up on NBC.com -- I guess it was a 24-hour delay, though I don't get why they'd do that here and not with Quantum Leap. This one was better. There were a lot of parts that didn't work for me, including the bits with Gurgs and the prosecutor, but there were some big laughs. Rauch finally got to play something edgier than her annoyingly cheerful persona when she was freaking out, and the dramatic heart-to-heart with Dan was pretty amazing, deepening her character in a way I was not expecting.
Thanks for the update. Care to tell us what you had for breakfast? (No one cares how you watched a show.)
"I care!" If he's watching live TV he probably went out and milked the cows and then killed something for breakfast. Or he called out on his dial up telephone.
I laughed a lot watching this one. It feels like they're really starting to find their groove fairly quickly. I mean, John Larroquette's already in great form (and still the glue holding it together while it gets its balance), and I think Melissa Rauch is so much fun that I tend to ignore any foibles she has in her role as Abby, but regardless this was a great one. Gurgs going "undercover" with the police officers was the highlight of the episode for me. I loved the heart to heart with Dan, because he really is a connection to Abby's father, and knowing she had to deal with addiction helps deepen her character. She's not cheery because she's oblivious and naive, she's cheery because she feels better being force for positivity when others give up on the least wanted and the outcast. I genuinely appreciate that. As for the DA, I'm trying to understand her a little better. She's melodramatic to a fault, and I figure that's part of her personality, but it still feels forced. I like her, I do, she's funny, when it's not as forced. I hope she finds her own groove and settled in nicely soon enough. Reminds me of Deanna Troi in the first season of TNG. I liked her character, but her personality felt forced that first season (IMO), and by the second season I felt far more comfortable, so it could just be me adjusting to the personality of the DA in Night Court. I do keep forgetting her name, which isn't great since I remember everyone else's, but in all honesty I don't really notice her until she makes herself front and center in any particular scene. Anyhoo, great episode, feels like the show's starting to find its feet, pretty quickly IMO, and the XXX cupcakes were brilliant. That felt like a classic nod to the original Night Court.
Honestly, I'm kind of hoping that if the show gets a second season, it follows the original show's tradition of replacing its less successful regulars until it finds ones who really click (though without any cast members dying this time, please). I think they could do better for the DA character, and I'm not sold on Gurgs yet. The clerk is starting to click for me, but I don't remember his name.
I did keep wanting Dan to look at the erotic cake, smile and go something like: "that brings back memories." I know they've had him mature a lot since 1992 but it'd be nice to get an occasional reminder of the horndog he used to be. Gurgs and Dan are still the strongest characters and this was the best episode to date.