I like to think that all of the television network heads got together Stonecutters-style and decided that if someone could make a cop show set in Detroit and make it successful, the winner would take home a $1 prize Duke Brothers-style. Here's the latest.
That's gotta be the explanation for the slight uptick in Detroit-themed cop shows lately. Check the trailer above for "Low Winter Sun," which locals have been buzzing about for some time now.
"Sun" debuts on AMC this summer. I'll admit I missed the "Mad Men" boat, "The Walking Dead" train and the "Breaking Bad" bus, but I've got Netflix to help me with those. But this might be the first AMC series I'll watch from the start.
We can't talk about Detroit cop shows without mentioning the sad, sad "Detroit 1-8-7," which was doomed from the first episode. I used to write recaps and other news about this short-lived ABC series that just couldn't seem to get it right. If "NYPD Blue" was the culmination of bold, pre-Disney ABC procedural drama, "Detroit 1-8-7" was certainly its post-Disneyfied counterpart.
Besides its production stumbles (the first episode was obviously not filmed in Detroit, the scripts paid little attention to local dialect, the first-time actors working as extras confused the set with "All My Children"), it was stuck in a sucky Tuesday night timeslot and just didn't have that gritty, inner-city drama that made "The Wire" the beloved show it is today. A Charlie Sheen interview in the same timeslot got more viewers than this show.
"Low Winter Sun" might erase all memory of "1-8-7." Already, there's a central conflict. (Two cops kill a guy. Why? Who is this guy?). None of the Detroit Three have problems sharing screen time, as we see a few clearly-badged Fords and GM products. And instead of the usual odd-cop pairing, you've got a pair whose partnership is on the rocks.
The next Detroit cop show coming this fall is CBS' "Beverly Hills Cop," which has been the bane of my existence since I was born. Try being from Detroit with the last name Foley for one day and let me know if you want to induce great bodily harm after hearing the umpteenth "Axel Foley" joke.