After watching season 8 of The Walking Dead (which I thought the season finale was a bit anti-climactic), I was in the mood to see something light. And so I decided to watch this series which seemed interesting and I think would be fun plus not too heavy/dark. Well let us get into more details now.
Brief Story Line
Dr. Dylan Reinhart (Alan Cumming - Son of the Mask, The Good Wife TV series etc) was a college professor teaching in Abnormal Behavior and also a successful author of 1 novel. He was leading a simple life with his husband Andy Wilson (Daniel Ings - Lovesick TV series etc). However, what seemed to be a peaceful life for Dylan would soon change as he was later on being approached by a NYPD detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic - Beyond Skyline, Devil etc) to help in the investigation of murders that seemed to be inspired by his novel.
Lizzie's boss and best friend Jasmine (Sharon Leal - Why Did I Get Married, Boston Public TV series etc) who was being pressured by the mayor, insisted Lizzie to solve the case soon. And with the help from a mysterious friend from Dylan's past named Julian (Naveen Andrews - The Brave One, Lost TV series etc) who could provide some information that NYPD could not find, Dylan and Lizzie would be able to crack this case.
That would be the start of a wonderful partnership between Lizzie and Dylan to solve various cases.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, let's face it. If you have watched the very popular series titled Castle where a novel writer partnered with a homicide detective, then you would definitely agree with me that it has so many similarities. In this series, the main cast was a novel writer and a young single homicide detective who were solving cases together. Meanwhile Castle's main cast was a mystery novels writer partnering with also a young single homicide detective. Interestingly enough, this series was based on novel titled Murder Games written by the famous James Patterson who was referred to a lot in Castle TV series.
However, as I proceed to further episodes, I found that there were notable differences, especially in Dylan's character who had different past and also being gay, which would mean no romance with the female lead. You can see this as positive or negative, since we have to admit that sometimes the possible romance between the male and female lead would be a nice incentive and intriguing to see what comes next. But it could also be anticlimactic when the relationship has been achieved. Now having no romance on the other hand could be good as we would not be bothered by the "relationship" part and focused only on the investigations. A great example of this would be Elementary which has Sherlock Holmes and female Watson as the lead (though I think it would not be fitting if they make them have romance).
Anyway aside from those elements, this series itself was quite entertaining. Alan Cumming was quite charming as the bit of socially awkward character, great professor. While Bojana Novakovic was pretty decent in her character, though if I have to say, personally I thought that sometimes she seemed to be a bit covered by Cumming's onscreen presence. Not sure why, but it felt like they were a bit non balanced. However, their chemistry was quite good and their banters were interesting. Sometimes gave me few chuckles as well. Actually the character that I felt was great was Julian who was portrayed nicely by Naveen Andrews. He was mysterious and his funny remarks were quite spot on. Only thing I did not like was the surprise in episode 12 which I personally thought a bit ruined the storyline.
Having only 13 episodes in the first season was good for me as I could easily finished the series. And since it was quite light with occasional fun moments, it was a good time killer. The cases involved in here were sometimes unique with my favorite case of episode 10 and 11. I actually like the pilot episode's case about the murder inspired by Dylan's book, but the whole episode itself felt lacking and the chemistry between the two leads were not really established yet. There were also bits and pieces that would reveal more of Dylan's history, Julian's secrecy and even Lizzie's past which I thought was a good way of keeping us interested. Oh the season finale was OK, but it did not prove the excitement or "cannot wait for the next season" feeling for me.
Overall, if you are looking for a new police procedural drama series, with a lead character who was quite charming, partnering with a young female homicide detective, but without a main huge arc that would be resolved in multiple seasons, then you certainly could give this a try. It definitely got the potential. However, I personally believe it has not reached to the level of very funny, charming, exciting and intriguing Castle series yet. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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