Second City aside, Against the Wall covers all of the cliché bases of a Lifetime series and of a cop show: A quick-witted woman struggles with relationships and drinks wine with her girlfriends; grizzled officers love the streets but hate the paperwork. It only takes a few seconds to completely understand the bulk of the conflict here.

Single-girl Abby Kowalski (Rachael Carpani, who you'll instantly compare to a young Meg Ryan) has finally landed a job as a police detective. Problem is, it's in Internal Affairs -- and wouldn't you know, her close-knit family is comprised of cops who hold a very strong grudge against IA. Her three protective brothers (Brandon Quinn, James Thomas, and Steve Byers) and very sweet mother (Kathy Baker) warn her that ol' Dad (Treat Williams) is gonna be pissed and not eat the delicious-looking chocolate cake that she will bake for him when he finds out. And yes, this does lead to a crime against a perfectly innocent cake.

We also meet longtime friend/hot lawyer Danny (Chris Johnson) who Abby hasn't seen in years but is totally-just-friends-with, and her pregnant-but-tough new partner, Lina (Marisa Ramirez). See where this is all going?

On the bright side, Against the Wall seems slightly aware how obvious the set-up is in the pilot, powers through the initial roadblocks quickly enough, and leaves us with a conflict that could eventually lead to a legitimately interesting premiere season. We're also thrown the delightful twist of Abby having HOT sex with her brother's partner, Brody (Andrew Walker). I'm not really invested in how much weight that whole dynamic holds; the interesting thing here is that Abby makes booty calls that don't seem to totally give her emotional distress. I appreciate that Lifetime is making the effort to create female character that doesn't fall into every unfortunate formula of a lady series, and I'm hoping we see more of that in future episodes. I have reason to believe we will, considering the fact that other women on this show are allowed to be slightly crass or just, you know, not especially "feminine" just because they're females. But then again, Abby's best friend (Mackie Phan) knows nothing about football.

There's also something very '90s about the series that I find charming, even if it isn't intentional. Maybe it's Abby's ponytail? The production quality? The fact that a case was solved in one episode, and that its big reveal was that women can be abusive to men? Whatever it is, I'm going to give Against the Wall a DVR season pass for its potential... and because, seriously, the sex is pretty awesome for basic cable.

Watch TWoP's editors preview August's big TV shows in this segment airing on the New York Nonstop news channel:

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