Previewing Dark Blue

There has been every variation of cop shows, all of which of which have been overdone many times over. Except for one, cops that go deep cover. Sure we have seen it on the big screen multiple times, but not much on the small one; until now. Wednesday sees the premiere of Dark Blue that follows a undercover team that is so covert that only one person in the LAPD knows about them, not even the FBI, in the form of Lily and Duncan Kane’s father, knows about them. Naturally that causes some problems for those under cover when they show up on the FBI’s radar.

The team is headed up by Dylan McDermott (The Practice) who doesn’t seem to sleep ever, and his body and demeanor defiantly shows wear, but still gets his job done. Omari Hardwick (Next Day Air) is the good boy of the group who has a wife to go home to when the case is over but is starting to have problems to keep his cover and real lives separate.

On the other end of the spectrum is Logan Marshall-Green (Traveler) who his team members sometime even are not sure whose side is he on. And as good of an actor and as intense as he gets in his scenes, it is still hard to think “is that Kevin Federline” whenever he is on screen. And what cop show would not be complete without a rookie, and for Dark Blue that quota is filled by Nicki Aycox (you probably know her better as Carol Vessey’s kid sister Stella) who may have more than a few skeletons in her closet. And that may be why she gets picked.

What may be a problem with the show is that it looks like it will feature a case of the week and how can a case that needs deep cover be solved in about forty minutes? Although if the show focuses more on the characters and how being deep cover affects them, it may end up being something worth checking out. And maybe having a Kevin Federline look-a-like will stop being distracting after a few episodes.

Dark Blue airs Wednesdays at 10:00n on TNT and is preceded at 9:00 by Leverage. If you cannot get enough of the show after it premieres tomorrow, head over to DarkBlueUndercover.com to play a game based on the show.