I got all excited when I heard that Amber Tamblyn had a new show called The Unusuals. It sounded quirky and interesting and dramatic and funny all at the same time. But after watching the premiere this week, I’m not sure it’s unusual enough to keep me coming back.
About 15 minutes into the show, I decided it seemed like a cross between Barney Miller and NYPD Blue and Veronica Mars. The story centers around upper-crust Detective Casey Schraeger, a former undercover Vice cop who gets transferred to Homicide to investigate her co-workers’ secrets. My thoughts on the show after one episode:
I love Amber Tamblyn. She brings something interesting to every scene she’s in, and she’s the main reason I watched the show this week. I’ve loved her since she played Emily Quartermaine on General Hospital and predicted she’d be a big star. In The Unusuals, she’s got this kind of wounded, girly, sassy, cynical attitude that’s darn appealing.
Adam Goldberg’s interesting, too. He’s had some interesting roles over the years, but I mostly remember him as Doug on the short-lived Relativity back in the mid-90s. Both he and Tamblyn deserve a nice, long-running TV series, and maybe this is it. But when I learned that his character, Det. Eric Delahoy, has a brain tumor and can’t bring himself to jump off the subway track as the train barreled towards him, all I could think was, Really? That’s the best you can do? I’m guessing his fatalistic view of life will come in handy on his job, though.
Question for Clack Readers: I didn’t really get what happened when that guy shot him. Did the bullets magically go past him and create an image of Jesus on the wall behind him? Discuss.
The scene where the cops threw the cat-killer into the car with a bunch of cats: Kind of weird and sadistic, but sort of funny, too.
As far as the rest of the characters, without looking at my notes, I don’t really remember much about them, other than the guy from Lost is in there and Jeremy Renner, who plays Det. Jason Walsh, reminds me of a young Gary Sinise.
What did you guys think? Did you watch The Unusuals premiere this week? Is it interesting enough to keep you coming back?
Clacked by Jane Boursaw 
on Apr 10, 2009 @ 15:01 EST5EDT
The cat scene was hilarious! i like the show.
also, i’m waiting for harold perrineau to scream “wwwaaaaaaalllllllsssssshhhhhhh!!!!!” lmao!!!
I didn’t care for the characters or the writing at the beginning, especially coming off of Life on Mars, but was won over about forty minutes in by the strong cast. Like Better Off Ted, I’ll be enjoying this show until ABC cancels it unceremoniously.
I suspect the point of the buckshot scene will become clear as Delahoy’s character arc progresses.
I enjoyed it well enough. I actually wasn’t planning on watching it, but my plans last night got canceled so I was bored. I think it’ll be on my DVR queue next week. I liked Amber Tamblyn in the role although she looks really young to be a homicide detective.
I am kind of wondering though why she was picked to secretly investigate the other detectives. Isn’t that what Internal Affairs is for? There’s got to be more to this story. I’m not sure whether she should trust Sergeant Brown yet. Why is he so eager to bust his own detectives?
The _only_ things I liked about this show are Amber Tamblyn and Jeremy Renner. Anytime either was on screen, the show was interesting, and when not, I wasn’t interested. The odd thing is that I like Goldberg, Perrineau, and particularly Terry Kinney.
I’ll keep going with it though, for now ;)
*POST AUTHOR*
Ryan – You know, it didn’t occur to me until today (sometimes it takes me a while), but it seems that Delahoy is being “saved” for some reason. In this episode alone, he miraculously survived the subway incident (since when does a subway come to a complete stop in such a short distance), as well as the buckshot. Why is he being saved?
Kate – Sgt. Brown must have a few secrets of his own.
Xnifex – The cat scene is definitely growing on me.
Dorv – Yeah, I’ll keep watching for now, too. Things could get interesting.
Good catch on the subway. As to why he keeps being saved, I’m guessing God’s sense of irony.
An observation I read about Schraeger was that she was a good choice for a Vice detective because of her youthful appearance for undercover work, and she was headhunted into Homicide rather than waiting for the usual promotion.
I’ll definitely keep watching; I really enjoyed this premiere. Anything with the potential for a unique back story / story arc like this episode set up for us is a draw for me. Add Amber Tamblyn and the rest of the great cast, and the fact that their characters are so developed already and to such a unique degree, I’m in it for the long haul unless they seriously screw it up.
I enjoyed it well enough, but I’ll mostly be back for at least one or two more eps because I like Amber Tamblyn. I watched the premiere of Southland right after this, and I have to say that I was more into Southland. Either way, both shows have earned themselves a trial period on my dvr.
I liked it. I will give it a few more episodes. I thought the Sgt explained that he wanted Schraeger to check out what was going on since she couldn’t be bribed. If he brought IA into it, they might not get the same level of honesty as someone who is in the division.
I want to know more about Cole – when Renner asked him about that Navan person (whose file he found in the burned storage locker) and Cole confessed it was him and he had changed his ways, etc. he called someone and said he was in trouble. He is also the one who found the “asian guy with a scar” in the files. Then after Schraeger shot said “asian guy”, he was in the room alone and I thought he was going to plant Kowalski’s badge and gun in the wall but then someone came in and he said he found it in the wall. Hmmm… could he have killed Kowalski?
I believe Amber Tamblyn and the age thing – she worked robbery then vice and wouldn’t have gone to homicide right then if Sgt. Brown hadn’t requisitioned her. He knows she is a trust fund baby since he showed up outside her parents and asked about the party.
I’ll stay tuned and look forward to more development.
I probably won’t be back. There were the occasional moments (cat, saving), and I like AT, but otherwise…meh. I didn’t care.