After few weeks of hectic times at work and completing 2 interesting martial arts series, I returned to my old habitat of watching Western series. I caught glimpses of this series in one of cable TV channel and thought it looked really interesting. Hence I started to watch the whole season and just finished it yesterday. Well what was the series all about? I'll share more on that below.
Brief Story Line
Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders - Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Spider-man: Far From Home etc) was a former Marine who had gone through 4 tours in Afghanistan as marine intelligence. Having PTSD from her experience at war, she was heavily indebted due to gambling and was "forced" by Sue Lynn Blackbird (Tantoo Cardinal - Wind River etc) the mother of Dex' former boyfriend into finding her kidnapped granddaughter. Despite her reluctance, Dex finally went ahead with this assignment where she met Portland Police detective Miles Hoffman (Michael Ealy - Barbershop, Think Like a Man etc) who was intrigued by her persistence but disapproved by his boss Lieutenant Cosgrove (Camryn Manheim - Ghost Whisperer TV series, The Practice series etc).
Dex was living with her down-syndrome younger brother Ansel (Cole Sibus) who worked in a bar owned by her best friend Greyson (Jake Johnson - Let's Be Cops, Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse etc). She also befriended a food truck owner named Tookie (Adrian Martinez - Focus, The Blacklist: Redemption etc) who would sometime be helpful in her personal and other matters. Feeling that she could make a good living by working as private investigator, Dex went on to try to have official PI license, while also recovering from her PTSD and juggling with her relationship with everyone around her.
During her works, she would later find out something about her past that would have major implication in her life. So what would happen to Dex and would she be able to handle all pressures in her life? You could find them all in this interesting and quite wonderful series.
End of Brief Story Line
It has been quite a while since I was really captivated by a new series from the first episode. And this one managed to do so and did it wonderfully until the 5th episode. After that somehow the series felt a bit like every other police procedural series with one case per episode and not all of them were heavy/difficult mysteries. However, during those rather light cases, the characters development were given more focus in a very interesting way that truly made us feel much more connected with the whole cast.
Once I reached around two third of the season, the series felt to gain momentum especially when there was a larger story arc that went on till the season finale. Though it might not be a really extremely complicated case to solve, it did bring more excitement to me to continue till the finale. First season only has 18 episodes which was not the standard 20-22/23 episodes per season with around 40-45 minutes duration (this is not a web series where the duration is generally not consistent).
What I really loved about the series was definitely the cast. I loved almost all of them as they were mostly not one dimensional character and had their own back story. Dex Parios was such a complex character with many things to struggle in her life while Grey was a pleasant surprise since he was not the typical best friend who was only there to provide moral support but had his own problems. Cobie Smulders was amazing as this character and such refreshing to see her in different role than from her days in How I Met Your Mother. The scene stealer for me was the young Cole Sibus who played Ansel Parios. Loved his performance in this and it was always so heart warming whenever he appeared. I also like the character Tookie as the food truck owner. Michael Ealy was fine too as Detective Miles, but I personally thought Camryn Manheim was not given too much screen time whereby Tantoo Cardinal was OK as Sue Lynn.
Aside from the interesting cast, the story telling was something that I enjoyed with dark humor every now and then. The dynamic between Dex with the people around her was exciting to watch. Sometimes though the rather poor self defense skill of Dex a bit frustrated me, luckily she did get better as the story progressed. Action is available here and there but do not expect this to be a full action type. Btw this is a series that did not have too much offensive remarks, heavy violence and sex scene. In fact I think it is a series that should be safe to watch for teenagers (however, sexual orientation might be a bit of let down for the more conservative audience).
Another thing that I liked in here was the music (provided hilariously from Dex' car) which was mostly from 80s and 90s. Oh I noticed from the opening credit that the series was based on graphic novel/comics by Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth and Justin Greenwood of the same title. Stumptown itself was a nickname of the city Portland, Oregon which might be a bit unfamiliar to non Americans, but from this series, at least I have a better idea of the city.
Overall, I felt that this is a worthwhile series to watch. It has some witty dialogues, interesting characters, one or two intriguing cases and lovely dynamics among the cast. The season finale has got surprising cliffhanger ending and luckily it has a second season to resolve them. So if you are looking for any of the above in a TV series, then you should be able to enjoy this one. However, if you want to see a very intelligent PI with various complicated cases that are being solved in a smart manner or with full action, then this one is not for you. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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