I watched glimpses of this series on cable TV sometime ago and when I found out that it was spin-off of the hugely popular Bad Boys franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, I was really intrigued and wanted to watch the whole season. Especially when the third Bad Boys movie scheduled to be released in the theaters soon. So how was this series? Let's get into details now.
Brief Story Line
Syd Burnett (Gabrielle Union - Bring It On, Cradle 2 the Grave etc) was a former DEA agent in Miami who had transferred to Los Angeles and working as LAPD detective with her partner Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba - Mechanic: Resurrection, Barely Lethal etc). Aside from Syd and Nancy, there were also a couple of detectives who sometimes work on the same case with them i.e. Baines (Duane Martin - All of Us TV series etc) who loved to joke around and his partner Walker (Zach Gilford - Friday Night Lights TV series, The Purge: Anarchy etc).
Despite moving to L.A, Syd still had her past haunting her. She sought the help from her father Joseph Burnett (Ernie Hudson - Ghostbusters original 1984 version, Miss Congeniality etc) who was also a former LAPD detective. Meanwhile Nancy who was living happily with her husband Patrick (Ryan McPartlin - Chuck TV series etc) and her step daughter Izzy (Sophie Reynolds - Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything TV series etc) was also caught up in Syd's personal mission which would have major impact on her life.
So what would happen to Syd and Nancy? Find them all in this police procedural action series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I watched the first episode of the series, I was quite confused. The beginning did not feel like a pilot episode at all, particularly due to the fact that Syd and Nancy were already partners and facing a case. From my experience watching series & movies, usually a buddy cop series would start with the couple becoming partners for the first time, with some adjustments required between the two people. However, since the pilot did not have this kind of dynamic, it did not give me the personal attachment with the two main leads. Perhaps the series creator did not feel it important enough and just use the formula in the first Bad Boys movie. But personally I felt for a series, it would be better to show that part.
Anyway, after adjusting myself with the first episode, I thought the second one was a bit better with a surprising ending. Unfortunately after that episode, I lose a bit of interest & felt a bit bored. Only after reaching the 9th episode I was intrigued again and the 10th episode made me want to continue and see how it would end. Luckily it was only 13 episodes so I could finish it off not too long.
For a supposedly police procedural series, this one only had few cases which felt a lot like unimportant background. Normally I would welcome a major story arc in addition to the various cases in this type of series. However, this time the major arc became the center of attention and not in a good way as it felt totally unbalanced. And what I did not really like was sometimes the cases were being handled by Detective Baines and Walker while Syd and Nancy were caught up in their own "drama".
The cast itself were pretty standard with no one in particular left me the best impression. Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba were OK as these LAPD detectives, while Duane Martin and Zach Gilford provided adequate support roles. I actually thought Ernie Hudson was probably the most interesting character in here. There were also Ryan McPartlin and Sophie Reynolds who played as Nancy's husband & stepdaughter respectively, but I personally felt they did not provide significant impact and instead more like distractions. I liked the recurring characters better like Barry Sloane (Revenge TV series) as Dante Sherman and John Salley who reprise his role as Fletcher from the Bad Boys films.
The action in here were so so and not as spectacular as I had hoped for, except for the season finale which gave some entertaining moments. The ending was quite intriguing and likely would be the major story arc in second season (premiering this year). I read in the internet that the series had very low critical ratings which I could totally understand after completing the first season. For a buddy cop series, this is certainly not the best there is and pale in comparison to the Bad Boys movies which did not take anything too serious and focused on the grand action and the comedic side between the two leads. In here, sorry to say, I thought Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba did not really have convincing chemistry (probably because it lacked that proper introduction of new partners).
Overall this was just a very average (if not disappointing) buddy copy series. The action was pretty standard, the chemistry between the two leads was not too convincing and the major story arc was too heavily featured making the daily cases too little shown. Even the supposed comedic moments were not memorable. So if you are looking for a good quality series of this genre, this would not satisfy you. It would be better if you try other series.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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