Spike’s new cop show
Spike TV has a new cop show called Real Vice Cops Uncut. The show, which is taped in Memphis and Orlando, will rides along with real police officers involved in the world of narcotics, prostitution and gambling. It will be about undercover vice divisions and give audiences a taste of just how dangerous and unpredictable it is.
It sounds interesting, but I have to point out one thing. Isn’t the mission compromised when the guy with the camera crew walks in? Just a thought.
About the security of the operations, Jim Romanovich, President of Worldwide Media and Entertainment for ATI (Associated Television International, production company for Vice Cops), explains that the show doesn’t jeopardize the work of these officers: “We have been allowed exclusive access to various vice divisions to see how their undercover operations really work without compromising the security of its officers who have to remain undercover. In this series, you will see all the action and intense situations you could ever expect. This is not Crockett and Tubbs. There is no Porsche, houseboat, or pastel wardrobe.” I’m not convinced.
The six half-hour episodes of Real Vice Cops Uncut will premiere on August 6th at 10 p.m. ET/PT. What do you think? Will you be watching?
Stars of Flashpoint talk about Toronto taking center stage
Flashpoint premieres Friday, July 11, at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, and yes, it’s another cop show, but it sounds gritty enough to offer something interesting. The new summer drama stars Enrico Colantoni as Sergeant Greg Parker, Hugh Dillon as Ed Lane, David Paetkau as Sam Braddock, and Amy Jo Johnson as Jules Callahan.
The series follows the lives of a Toronto-based Strategic Response Unit (SRU), unique cops who go beyond the call of ordinary cops to rescue hostages, bust gangs, defuse bombs, handle state-of-the-art weaponry and, of course, risk their lives to save others.
I participated in a conference call this week with Colantoni, Dillon, Johnson, and executive producers Bill Mustos and Anne Marie La Traverse. Some highlights of the call:
Johnson’s real-life pregnancy won’t be incorporated into the story. “I’m past my first trimester, so I have a lot more energy,” she said. “As for doing the show, it was a bit of a rough start for me. I was like, whew, this is a lot more intense and difficult than I thought it would be, but I’ve gotten into the rhythm, and I’m having a lot of fun now, although I’m starting to show a little bit.”
Colantoni (who played Keith Mars on Veronica Mars) is happy for the chance to play with guns. “Keith Mars was a wonderful character to play, but there were not enough guns in it for me,” he said. “This has such an abundance of explosions and pistols, and I feel like I’m six years old playing cops and robbers all over again. Plus, I’m from Toronto and my brother was a cop for a lot of years, so this is my chance to pay homage to him.”
Johnson, who kicked butt as a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, loves lots of action. “I definitely didn’t expect my career would start off as a super hero, but I like doing action, and I find it fun. I was a gymnast for ten years when I was a kid, so it’s sort of right up my alley. Before we started shooting, we spent a week with the SRU Emergency Task 14 in Toronto, so that was interesting watching them do different simulations.”
The show is set in Toronto, because it was inspired by the real-life emergency task force there. “One of the distinguishing features about Toronto’s Emergency Task Force is that in addition to training their men and women in lethal and non-lethal tactics, they also train in negotiation and psychological profiling,” said Mustos. “So, it’s like a fully rounded SWAT team unit where you get all of the skill sets you need in one team. The second thing that inspired this idea was a real-life incident our pilot was modeled after, which took place about three years ago near the Toronto Train Station. That’s where the idea started, and it progressed from there and developed into the series it is now. We got our Canadian network on board and then CBS on board, and since it was inspired in Toronto, we decided to set it in Toronto.”
The show is both macho and emotional. “I think that the show is about the human and personal cost of heroism, so even though we’re depicting a really macho world, we’re looking at it from an emotional point of view,” said La Traverse. “We explore the emotional flashpoint of the people who are at the center of these critical incidents, so it’s a mixture of an emotional drama and a procedural macho cop show.”
It’s an episodic show with a bit of black humor. “We don’t have a serialized kind of storytelling approach where we get deeply into the personal lives and home lives of our lead characters,” said Mustos. “There’s a little layer of that present, but it’s minimal. Also, in our research with the real Emergency Task Force here in Toronto, we discovered that one of the ways these men and women deal with stress is a form of black humor they use among themselves. We’ve tried to introduce a little bit of that around the edges of our script. Once the team is on-site and dealing with the crisis of that week, however, it’s all down to business. It’s all about trying to defuse that crisis without the loss of life. That’s the goal of the team.”
It’s about life and death and ticking clocks. “This is not a franchise about another dead body at the start of an episode and investigation into the mystery of who caused that death,” said Mustos. “We were more interested in the kind of storytelling which would allow us to explore an elite police world that’s happening in the here and now. A world that’s about a ticking clock, and a world where we could really explore the emotional side of a story that’s often ignored in a police procedural. That’s what we’re hoping will appeal to audiences, so we think our way into this police show is fresh.”
They love the summer premiere date. “We like it for a bunch of reasons,” said Mustos. “Even though the network approach to scheduling is really changing, the reality is that in the third week of September as all the new shows get launched, it’s very easy for a good show to get lost in the shuffle. We love the opportunity to be on CBS this summer and be one of two original dramas on the CBS schedule. We think we have the full support of the network right now, because they don’t have a lot of other brand new shows to concern themselves with.”
They also love Friday nights at 10 p.m. “For starters, Friday night is a good night for CBS,” said Mustos. “Secondly, CBS has moved Numb3rs out of the 10 p.m. slot and put us there, giving Numbers as our lead-in, so we like that very much. CSI started its life on a Friday night, and that’s a pretty auspicious case study to have gone ahead of us. But we think Friday night is a good night, and the fact that we have Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs ahead of us — in a time slot which CBS regularly wins — can be a very positive thing for the show.”
The original title was Critical Incident. “That’s the technical term for the incidents that we explore from week to week,” said La Traverse. “In developing the series, we started to see a pattern in the kinds of stories we wanted to tell. At the center of every story is a human being in crisis and a human being who is brought to a flashpoint, to their edge … a father who wants a heart for his daughter as she’s dying … people who are pushed to the brink and do things they wouldn’t necessarily do on a usual day. That’s how the title Flashpoint came to stick. At the center of every story is an individual in that flashpoint moment, and we tell the stories of how that person got there and how our team is brought in to help save that person from themselves or from the situation that they find themselves in.”
It’s cool shooting in Toronto. “It’s been really liberating shooting in Toronto, because we’ve been able to show off the city in a way that hasn’t been seen by audiences widely,” said Mustos. “When you’re shooting Toronto as New York or Chicago, you have to constantly avoid certain Toronto landmarks, which are wonderful landmarks. But we get to show the city off in all of its glory, and because our critical incidents tend to take place in big locations, it’s given us a chance to pick those wonderful spots in Toronto, whether it’s on the water or the top of an office tower or inside a glorious old historic bank.”
The characters play well together. “Enrico plays Greg Parker, the Sergeant of the team, and he really embodies this emotional intelligence that’s very important to the steering of this team,” said Mustos. “There’s a kind of empathy, an intelligence that Enrico brings to his performance that was perfect for that role. In Hugh’s case, we have the character of Ed Lane, the team leader. Ed is the tactically brilliant guy on the team who knows exactly how to handle every situation, but who bottles up all that he’s seen and done over the years. Hugh is a wonderful example of an actor who’s able to portray those deep reserves, that idea of a life really lived behind his eyes. We felt that Hugh in that role and Enrico in the sergeant role would make a beautiful partnership. When it came to Amy Jo, we were looking for an actress who would be credible as a sharpshooter and a rappelling master, but who would also bring a real empathy to the role. We think that Amy Jo, with all of her wonderful years among the Power Rangers and Felicity and other things, is an audience favorite wherever she goes. Our viewers will be the judge, but we think we were bang on it with these choices.”
Numb3rs: Atomic No. 33 - VIDEO
(S04E16) “It’s not Heat?” - Colby, amazed that the Pacino/De Niro classic isn’t Don’s favorite movie
I think it’s a given that sooner or later, every cop show is going to have an episode about religious cults. They’re just so easy to make into a bad guy, especially with all the crazy stuff you always hear on the evening news. That’s part of the problem though; that it is too easy to turn into an hour episode and things can get stale fast. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all. Fortunately, the folks behind Numb3rs must have realized this because this episode was way more than, how did Colby put it? A bunch of religious “nut jobs.”
While the episode started out as a cult whose members all unknowingly drank some arsenic (hence, the episode title) laced coffee, it turned into an elaborate long con headed by a grifter and his partner - an orphaned teenage boy. They posed as members of the cult, killed off the leader, took over, and then attempted to get the government to recognize them as an actual religion. That means tax exempt status. With all the money coming in from the cult’s members (everyone donated 75% of their personal income), the con artists would have been set for life, skimming from the church coffers.
One of the best parts of the episode was seeing Larry so passionately against the ignorance the members of the cult all embraced. He’s always so torn between personal meaning and scientific acceptance, so you could tell he was fired up. It was some of the best dialogue we’ve seen Larry spew in the life of this series.
Moving on, Don and Robin are still going strong. If this keeps up, I think we may have a Numb3rs marriage in the future. They tell each other secrets, Don buys candy, and they watch old Preston Sturgess movies together. We’ve never seen him get this intimate with a woman - especially someone he works with. After Liz, you would have thought that’d be a no-no for him. Guess not.
The funniest part of the episode was Charlie’s experiment with non-Newtonian liquids - aka corn starch mixed in water. The exact definition? A non-Newtonian liquid is a fluid whose viscosity is variable based on applied stress. Hit it hard, acts like a solid. Move gently, acts like a liquid. Everyone made this stuff at some point in middle school science class. Charlie and Larry made a whole tub of it though, and if you moved fast enough, you could run right across it without sinking in. How come classes like that weren’t available when I was in college?
A few more thoughts…
- I loved Charlie’s “Easy as π” tee-shirt. I want one.
- When David was chasing the kid up the bell tower at the train station, he had a great line when he yelled “I’m pretty sure the top of this tower isn’t in Mexico…” or something like that.
- Why do Charlie’s yellow dry-erase markers smell like urinal cakes?
With only two episodes left this season (18 total) there are still a few things I’m waiting on. Obviously, I want too see what’s going to happen with Don and Robin, but I’m more interested in Megan. A few weeks ago, we found out she was unhappy with her job (Diane Farr is leaving the show). But what’s actually going to make Megan leave the FBI? I’m assuming it’s something big because it’ll mean saying good-bye to Larry too.
This week’s numb3rs: 1,137 members; 30 years; 2 families; 1 new religious movement (NRM)
This week’s math: Atomic No. 33
New Amsterdam: Soldier’s Heart
(S01E03i) I don’t know about you but this week’s episode almost lost me in the opening scenes. I like exposition as much as the next guy but when a cop show takes that long to get to the first crime, I start to lose interest.
I was glad to see the return of Robert Clohessy. When he wasn’t in the second episode I feared that he might have gotten axed from the series. With all of John Amsterdam’s philosophical ramblings, this show desperately needs a sarcastic character like Clohessy’s.
Once the show got rolling, I started to enjoy it more. I always look forward to the flashbacks, so I can see what new job Amsterdam is given. This week, he was a doctor, but not just any doctor, a medic in wartime. The image of Amsterdam taking a hacksaw to that soldier’s leg was pretty powerful.
I also really liked how Dr. Sarah busted Amsterdam the moment they were alone. I like a character who is realistic in their actions. It makes sense that an ER doctor would be smart and ballsy enough to face Amsterdam with the mystery of his “death.”
The other interesting part of their relationship is the difficult situation Amsterdam is being forced into. On one hand, he can’t really tell Sarah the whole story, at least not right away, cause there’s no way she would believe him but on the other hand, he has no choice but to get to know her in case she’s “the one.” Considering how unbelievably beautiful she is, though, I don’t see it as such a tough decision.
One thing I can’t forgive on this series is that fact that Amsterdam just isn’t a good detective. I’ve watched enough cop shows to learn that cases are solved by aggressive legwork and hunting down leads not hunches and gut feelings. I understand that he has over 400 years of experience to draw upon but that doesn’t change how things should be done. A cop who doesn’t trust fingerprints or confessions? After being alive for so long, he’s probably better suited to be a teacher or scientist or an archaeologist with a cool hat and a whip.
I like the kisses with history on shows like this but this week’s was almost embarrassing. Why on earth would Walt Whitman give Amsterdam a copy of his book? The entire scene was ham-fisted at best.
I liked the surprise ending with John meeting Sarah’s husband. It serves the story well in that it helps to explain why he and Sarah’s souls have yet to become one and it makes it more difficult for John to work his considerable charms on her.
I like this show, I really do, but honestly, unless the cop stories can step up and match the immortal stories, I don’t know if I can keep watching.