Good Guys is the latest show from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix. It plays with some fairly long in the tooth conventions, but dances around letting them stagnate. Straight-laced young cop is partnered with old-school has-been drunkard cop, written off and yet solves crimes. However, where it's fun is the details. Nix has infused this formula with some great touches that appeal to viewership of my ilk, at least I think. The humor is wry and knowing. There's irony, but not snark. There's clever scriptwriting, but not excessively distracting dialog. The crimes and plot elements in the episode are linked in interesting ways, not too obtuse to let you focus on the plot at the expense of character, nor simple enough to make you wonder why they haven't solved the case yet. That sort of thing. At the end of the day, it's not a cop buddy show, it's not a crime-solving show, it's not a police procedural. It's a character show. And the best character? Hands down: Bradley Whitford's MUSTACHE.



That's not a slight to Whitford or Hanks or anyone else. It's just so damn FUN. It's real. He grooms it proudly, despite being drunk at 8am and barely coherent. They find the balance between mocking these classic memes and embracing them for nostalgia value. And while the old school/ new school thing is definitely played up, it's not one-note. Colin Hanks, even more a spitting image of dear old dad than ever before, may be straight-laced, but he's also socially inept and rude and annoyingly detail oriented and devoid of social lubricant, and it's great to see a charming guy with so much potential struggling in the 'Property Crimes' department because he pissed every superior off by correcting them. Meanwhile Bradley Whitford's Dan Stark may be this shy of a Ron Burgundy cartoon, but he's got heart and instincts and actually CAN be a good cop, if he's kept from drinking himself to death or getting shot from telling the same story a thousand times to the wrong person. I will also admit, I'm in for Jenny Wade, a beguiling actress last scene on Reaper, who has a fragile, almost blown glass quality to her facial features.

Anyway, in the Pilot, Hanks' Jack Bailey has been begrudgingly partnered with washed-up Detective Stark in the Property Crimes department, chasing down the report of a stolen humidifier. The case leads to drug trafficking, Colombian assassins, victim interviews full of hot sex, facial reconstructive surgery in the form of Erik Estrada's visage, and more. I had a blast.

Now, to be fair, I'm not the harsh critic many are when watching new shows. Much like the rest of my life, I prefer to find the good. It's by no means a visionary piece of showmaking. But if you like Burn Notice, you'll like this, and I happen to find Burn Notice fun as hell. I think there's a place for cop type shows that aren't so serious.





Items!

- The title screen, at least for the pilot, was an orange and yellow illustration type shot of the two leads, some ghetto lettering and a drawing of a Trans Am. I was sold.

- "they say you are the second best assassin in the world"
This is how the drug kingpin introduces us to the assassin that heads to America and shoots the guys up, played by the same actor who played Mikhail on Lost. I mean, second best. As a badge of honor.

- The 'second-best assassin in the world' has a habit of correcting people's spanish, like the burglar/pawn shop owner who barked at him in broken spanish defiantly during the shoot out, or with others later on. Nice connection to the fact that Hanks' character was demoted for correcting everyone. This guy is bad ass though.

- "Didn't think I'd make it through that shower. Then found that bottle of conditioner. Peppermint schnaps!"
Frank Stark, on being picked up at his RV in the morning by his partner. I wasn't sure what I liked more, that he stashed Schnaps in the shower for emergencies, that he drinks SWEET liquor, or that he forgot it was there in the first place.

- Captain: "You called for backup AFTER you shot up the pawn shop, then Stark jumped on his car?"
- Stark: " it's called The Stark!"

- Humidifinder. Let's not forget, two detectives were sent out to investigate a reported theft of a humidifier.

- Stark wears a little pewter handcuff tie clip

- There's a meet set up by the Colombians at a 'Stripping club'. Thereafter, the title cards refer to the location the same way.

- Stark sees a used car pulled up onto racks at a deslership nest to the gas station they're in, and declares: "That Trans am is mint!"
Then the worker posts a sign that says "$6500 mint"

- "He's gone and he ain't never coming back!"
From the pawn shop guy, about having ditched the bodies in Mexico, never to be recovered.
Immediately cut to a desert scene of a Ford Festivva, nose down in a ditch about 15 feet deep, and the guy pops out of the trunk, still alive, half-surgically cut-up from the facial reconstruction, screaming with rage.

- "He's interviewing the stripper."
Hanks' Bailey, to the Captain, about where Stark is in the crime scene. Please note the strippers had nothing to do with the crime. Also, recall Stark hooked up with the woman whose humidifier was stolen in the first place (played by Nia Vardalos) Player!

- The criminal needing facial recostruction after going on the lam, specifically requested looking like Erik Estrada.

- "So you know about rules and evidence and how to work a computer machine!"
Stark, defiantly and defensively decrying his partner's reliance on new technology.

"I'll take the other room with the cable TV and you take this bed. It's the assassins bed."
The Colombian kingpin, forcing the second-best assassin, and now the BEST assassin who he brought with him, to share a bed.

- The pawn shop guy was given a puffy Kitten sweater to hide his vest and wire for the big meet. It was garishly wrong. In the meet itself, the Colombian kingpin stares at it, looks at him, and doesn't say anything. Which was awesome. Like, it wasn't even worth it.

- "One day you wake up and everything robots and lasers. Shaving where once hair grew free!"
Stark, complaining to the liquor store attendant in a drunken speech, after being suspended.

- "Please let me save her."
Hanks' character, to the assassin, in the middle of their shoot out, after seeing the girl being dragged out the back. Best part, the assassin, who is now the BEST assassin in the world after killing the best moments earlier, LETS him.

- When Stark stole the Trans Am and comes tearing around the corner, guess what they play.
'Texas, yeah Texas, and we had some fun!"
That's right. THUNDERSTRUCK

- "How long can they stay like that?"
Captain, to another, about the assassin, and the second best assassin, in a locked gaze guns-drawn impasse. "Hours!" says the other guy, and then describes your typical Good Bad and Ugly scenario in detail.

- Upon returning to Colombia, the now-BEST-assassin in the world sends the detectives a letter praising their bravery, and a photo of him posing with his children.

- In the closing scene, they jump into the Trans Am to hit the road, but Stark sort of slides and gets tripped up a bit, because it's hard to jump INTO a T-top.

Excellent.

8/10 Clicks

:::

See several eps here, but not the pilot reviewed OF COURSE.
http://www.fox.com/watch/goodguys

love the time jumping trick and the fun with title cards

i've watched every episode of this that's available on hulu (i think eps 3-8), and i love it so. i love how EAGER stark is, until it comes to anything that's not "bustin punks." such as due process. he's at once deplorable and honorable. he doesn't hesitate to just chase a hunch and to trust his gut and it actually makes him a GREAT detective, if not completely insane.

hanks' relationship with him is the perfect offset. both of them are so opposite, but yet they're similar in that they were BOTH busted down to the property crimes division, and just want to do good police work again.

that ADA is amazing. i'm totally in love with her.

the time-shunting MAKES the show.

super, SUPER entertaining.

So you see why I was chortling, making my little notes when watching it? My wifebot(tm) was not in agreement. I loved it. Look at how many shows have casting right but script off or tone off or lose steam, and this seems to keep all together nicely. I know you don't like Burn Notice, but it has a VERY similar vibe fromt he same team.

The ADA was the high point of the last season of Reapers. She was a hot horny demon. That ate people. In pleated skirts. Awesome.

you've received faulty intel. i like burn notice just fine, just not enough to bring it into the rotation. i think it has an overarching story appeal, but no individual episode-to-episode longevity. it would make a better movie than tv show, not unlike MOST tv shows.

I've watched the first three eps so far, and this is a really fun show. My wife opted out, so it's my little pleasure while she's sleeping. Really fun stuff.

And that DA? Yet another blonde that I dig for some reason...

I liked Burn Notice okay, and I'll probably catch up on it sometime, but I thought the main character is WAY too smarmy and the love interest was kind of bony and annoying.

But it has Bruce, so that forgives a lot.