Last night’s Dark Blue ventured into the drug world. Sort of. It’s actually pretty tough to go deep anywhere when you’ve only got an hour to play with. Which is, you know, something to think about the next time the show considers a multi-episode arc.
The series can still deliver plenty of high-octane moments, and last night’s episode opened with just that. The drug bust was very fast paced, and was unwittingly juxtaposed against its extreme opposite in my house — when I turned on the TV it was tuned to COPS, and the scene had a pair of highway patrol cops calmly and quietly arresting a guy carrying crack that they’d just pulled over for driving erratically.
Jaimie may have gotten herself into a bad situation, but I don’t blame her; why did Carter, Dean, and Ty all have to go after one guy, while she chased down the other? One of them should have been right behind her. Little Ant still may have gotten the drop on them, but at least it would have made more procedural sense with a pair of them there.
Though we saw very little of him, Junebug was played by Dante Basco. Imagine the guy a little thinner, with a wispier voice and a less in-your-face personality — Basco played artist Fukijama on Entourage a few seasons back, the guy who designed the limited sneakers for Nike. I preferred him then, but was surprised that he was gunned down so quickly here.
The big target, Cahill, was played with some tongue-in-cheek by Dean Norris. I don’t watch Breaking Bad, but if I’m getting my characters right his Hank Schrader plays Walter White’s DEA agent brother-in-law. So putting on the jacket as a criminal robbing dealers must have been fun for him. Weren’t the ski masks a dead giveaway?
The best spot came from Noel Fisher as Petey. Fisher played Cael Malloy on The Riches, but the most comparable part he’s played was tech Dale Stuckey on Law & Order: SVU. Dale ended up being a crazy serial killer (that episode was insane), but his buddy moments there weren’t far off from Petey trying to get in with Ty here. It was very reminiscent of a Lethal Weapon-era Joe Pesci as Leo Getz. If they were ever going to make a spin-off of Dark Blue, the Ty/Dean/Petey show would work. Really well. As it is, Petey would make a great recurring character (miles better than Rice).
The tricks Dean taught Jaimie about looking like a junkie were cool. We really should be seeing more of that in general, the cover creation that not only doesn’t exist but that our cops don’t ever seem to do. That’s another casualty of one-and-dones.
We were robbed of whatever karaoke moment we could have had. Why didn’t we get to see that? At least Ty and Dean are back together, where they each belong.
The shootout at the Armenian’s house was totally crazy. On the one hand, the moment reminded me of how different this show was before there was a Federal supply room taking care of their every need. On the other hand, the lack of discipline or safety when the guns started going off pretty much said it all about what’s so different about Dark Blue. In a good way.
I loved that Petey took the police academy exam, and plans to take it again after failing it the first time. He really needs to come back again.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Sep 02, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I think the tricks Dean “taught” Jamie about how to look like a junkie were supposed to be ironic since she has more than enough experience on how to look like a junkie.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yes, I saw the irony in it, too. Still, for me, I thought it interesting to see that to get the “look” you can really inject needles into your arm. Crazy.
I loved this episode..Jamie’s junkie was really good. And the scenes with her and Dean were multilayered, I thought. They really care for each other and it is coming across very quietly. I, also, love the ‘details of the cover’ that I wish we saw more of. Last season Ty’s phone conversations posing as a gang leader and speaking to the bomb mastermind, were fabulous. He slipped right into the role.
Anyway, back to JaneWayne. Petey was Great! Would love to see more of him. Dean and Ty are comfortable together again. I enjoyed Dean’s description of women vs. men psyches to Ty.
But, alas, Carter is turning mushey with the Team and Rice. And she just seems like ‘odd man out’. I assume that all eps are filmed so no way to be able to change the course of the rest of the season at this point. But each ep is getting better and I continue to Love This Show. Thanks.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah, Carter’s really slipping for me. I was always waiting for him to do a “let me show you how it’s done” undercover job … now I just want him to get his head back in the game!