WRITER: Matt NixIt's amusing to see Colin Hanks given the straight-man "Joe Friday" role in The Good Guys, considering how his famous father ("Hollywood nice guy" Tom) was the comic relief in 1987's Dragnet parody, which this buddy cop TV series owes a debt to. Actually, it owes a debt to everything that's ever featured two mismatched detectives, particularly in macho TV shows of the '80s.
DIRECTOR: Tim Matheson
CAST: Bradley Whitford, Colin Hanks, Jenny Wade, Diana Maria Riva, Andrew Divoff & Nia Vardalos
The premise is knowingly unoriginal; aware that a Starsky & Hutch-style series hasn't been seen on TV for awhile, so it's worth trying to revive this sub-genre. Of course, nowadays it's difficult to use the "buddy cop" formula without lacing it with post-modern humour, but The Good Guys just wasn't madcap enough for my tastes (given the possibilities of the concept for riotous action and Hot Fuzz-style laughs), while the characters barely stretched beyond baseline clichés. Hanks was appropriately formal and stiff, Whitford was crass and idiotic, but there wasn't much chemistry between them and neither character felt interesting, original or nuanced. Knowing Whitfield's capabilities as a dramatic actor, I couldn't shake the feeling he's slumming it with a comedy 'tache for a fat pay-cheque (as co-star and producer.)
I also couldn't help thinking The Good Guys would be funnier had it been set in the '80s and embraced the era it clearly wants to evoke, or at least treated Dan's character as a Rip Van Winkle-type who feels like he's been dropped into 2010 direct from 1980. Sure, Dan's "old school" in temperament, loves himself a Pontiac Trans Am, doesn't believe in the existence of DNA, and appears to be a technophobe, but that's about as far as it goes.
Overall, The Good Guys is a sore disappointment if you go in expecting a retro slice of buddy cop hilarity and action-packed fun. It's a lame duck with a comedy-to-drama imbalance that forgets to ensure its leads are engaging people with chemistry to draw you back for more. Little wonder it's debuting in the slow summer months and scheduled to partner Human Target in Fox's Friday night "death-slot" later this year. As with all pilots, there's certainly time for things to improve, but there was nothing here to suggest it'll be worth sticking with. Even if Whitford and Hanks were hilarious together (which they're not -- yet), I'm not sure the buddy cop genre's something I want to catch every week on television.
Asides
- Who decided it would be a great idea to accompany every location legend with a really loud gunshot noise? It's really not.
- Colin Hanks' similarities to his father are obvious, but it's actually quite unnerving how he's a dead ringer for Toy Story's Woody.
