MONDO EXTRAS

As I stated in my Terriers recap earlier this month, I'm not a huge fan of cop shows in general, unless they are particularly well-executed. I cited early episodes of NYPD Blue among the ones that I avidly enjoyed, and I would say that this show probably most closely resembles that of Southland. I mean that as high praise, and I'm certainly hoping that this cop show with Michael Imperioli lasts longer than his last cop show (RIP, Life on Mars). At least there's no mysterious time travel element for audiences to contend with here, it's just straight up solving crimes about dead people, which should be familiar territory for the TV watching world. Frankly, I'm just happy it isn't another CSI-esque procedural. And especially pleased that while it does air on network TV, it's got a little bit of grit to it. This likely means it will be cancelled, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

The show opens with the funky strains of Stevie Wonder playing as a voiceover discusses the insanely high homicide rate of Detroit, Michigan. A very young looking Det. Damon Washington is on his first day on the homicide beat (thanks to a helpful looking pop-up for that information) and he's eagerly anticipating the arrival of his first child. So much so that he's got "Baby Love" programmed as his ringtone to alert him the moment his child arrives. His partner, Det. Louis Fitch (Imperioli), who has been with the unit for 10 years, looks less than impressed... to say the least.

They get dispatched to go to the site of a double homicide on the east side. Washington starts rambling about how he used to patrol over the door and basically starts reciting his record for busting criminals when Fitch tells him to shut up. Thanks, Fitch. Even I kind of want this guy to shut up, and the show has only been on a minute and twenty seconds. They arrive on scene at a pharmacy and Washington immediately starts puking at the site of a dead body on the ground. The son of the pharmacy owner is one victim, the other is a girl who was working behind the counter.

In American (a hot dog joint), Sgt. Jesse Longford (30 years in homicide) is talking about meeting his cop father while he was on the beat, and how cops were treated well back in the day. Det. Vikram Mahajan (7 years homicide) says that his father brought the family down to the diner a lot when they moved from India. Chili dogs helped him assimilate. Their discussion of the proper use of ketchup is interrupted by a call to go investigate a report of a dead vagrant at the train yards.