The Job Virgin Diary – Welcome to the 21st Precinct

Over half the shows on my top-ten all-time have some sort of major law enforcement element: 24, Brotherhood, The Chicago Code, Homicide: Life on the Street, Third Watch, Justified, Law & Order: UK … so it’s fair to say that I’m a cop show junkie. When I realized I’d somehow missed The Job, which ran for 19 episodes on ABC over a decade ago and is somewhat considered the precursor to FX’s Rescue Me, I jumped at the chance. You know what? I’m glad that I did.

The Job introduced me to the detectives of the NYPD’s 21st Precinct. To call them “quirky” would be putting it nicely. Det. Mike McNeil (Denis Leary) has an anger problem, a drinking problem, a drug problem, a wife, a kid and a 26-year-old girlfriend. He is oftentimes an insufferable jerk, which is to be expected when he’s played by a guy who sung a song called “Asshole.”

But for his many flaws, Mike does come across as being the guy that, at the end of the day, you could trust to have your back. It helps that The Job gives us as many reasons to laugh at him as it does to laugh with him.

And in this precinct it’s impossible not to laugh. Mike’s partner Terrence ‘Pip’ Phillips (Bill Nunn) is his opposite in every way: married, reserved, straight-laced, heavyset and black. They couldn’t be more different, which is what makes them so entertaining to watch.

There’s Det. Jan Fendrich (Numb3rs‘ Diane Farr), the one female cop who doesn’t wear that as a label; her friendship with Mike is one of my favorite parts of the series, because they have a real bond. He’s protective of her, going as far as to do a background check on her new boyfriend, and she’s unafraid to put him in his place when necessary.

The new guys are Ruben Somarriba (John Ortiz from Fast & Furious) and Al Rodriguez (Julian Acosta). I’m six episodes in and Al hasn’t said anything yet, which is funny in its own way. I’d like to see any other show dare to have a regular character that’s entirely mute. What were the network notes on that?

Then there’s Det. Frank Harrigan (Lenny Clarke): middle-aged, middle-of-career, overweight working-class white dude, or everything that we think cops are. Clarke, Leary and the writers play that stereotype for all it’s worth to show us how ridiculous it is.

My favorite character, though, is Frank’s put-upon partner, Det. Tommy Manetti (Adam Ferrara). Having become friendly with Adam since interviewing him for his current gig on Top Gear, and also considering him to be one of the most hilarious stand-up comics to ever have walked this planet, I suspected this would be the case. Adam is a scene-stealer whenever he appears; he does exasperated like nobody’s business (if someone stole my donut, I’d want to shoot them too) and his deadpan lines help balance out the more manic beats.

But I’m more drawn to Tommy because I’ve been him: the one sane person in the room, wondering what the hell everyone else thinks they’re doing. That attitude is how I feel about The Job as a whole. I’m always asking “What are these guys doing?” and yet, I can’t help but laugh, or even realize that they have a point.

Of the first six episodes, my two favorites are “Bathroom” and “Anger.” In the former, Frank misplaces a suspect who happens to be hiding in the precinct bathroom, which Mike finds out when he visits the restroom and is taken hostage. The whole situation is so over the top ridiculous that I found myself laughing almost constantly. The biggest gag is that the perp doesn’t speak English, so the boss (Keith David) just thinks Ruben and Al can talk to him, while Jan feels overconfident in her four years of high school Spanish.

Is it fair to assume that just because you’re of Latin descent you must be fluent in Spanish? Not necessarily. But it ends up also being true. And then we have Mike trying to tell his wife he can’t make their marriage counseling appointment because he’s being held hostage in the bathroom …

“Anger” has Mike sent to anger management after his altercation with a cabbie is caught on tape. As you can imagine, Denis Leary in an anger management class is enough for a half-hour of entertainment. But what makes “Anger” click for me is that Mike is pretty justified. I understood why he did it. Maybe I wouldn’t have hauled the guy out of the car, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have thought about it. Mike might be off the hinges, but he’s not just that way for comic effect; he’s a walking commentary on how screwed up our society is, at the same time that he is also one of the most screwed up people in it.

On top of that, there’s a pre-Grey’s Anatomy Ellen Pompeo playing Sue, who hates everyone, but works with handicapped kids. I spit my soda when she came on screen because, being a handicapped kid in high school, I was taught by someone exactly like her. There are sadly people like Sue in the world.

In some respects The Job reminds me of another short-lived ABC show: The Unusuals. Both were comedies about New York cops that prided themselves on their quirks, but they also had a surprisingly real heart to them. I loved The Unusuals because while it was a riot to watch, I felt for the characters (I still miss Jeremy Renner‘s Det. Jason Walsh). While The Job has a lot more bite to its humor, I’m starting to feel the same way about it. These guys might all be nuts, but they make me smile.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Mar 12, 2012 @ 12:00 EST5EDT