Review by C.J. Bunce
A television series co-starring Clancy Brown? For most of us that’s really all we need to know. For everyone else, let’s talk about why the new series Good Cop/Bad Cop is the most fun you’ll have watching TV this year. In this Australian production from CW, Stan, and Roku, now streaming on HBO Max, Acorn, and Roku, Leighton Meester (The Orville) is Detective Lou Hickman, who works as the sole detective in the small Pacific Northwest town of Eden Vale, Washington. She works under the watchful eye of her dad, Clancy Brown’s Big Hank Hickman, the town’s chief of police. When Lou’s brother (also Hank’s son) Henry Hickman (Luke Cook, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) fails to land a promotion in the Seattle Police Department because of his lack of social skills, Hank offers him to come home and be a detective along with Lou. It’s a comedy about a sister and brother that do not get along except when they do, and their relationship with a doting father who just wants to lay low for the rest of his career.
In the tradition of quaint towns you wish you could visit in real life like those found in Northern Exposure, Resident Alien, and all those Hallmark mystery series, each of the eight episodes of Good Cop/Bad Cop makes for a good one-hour vacation filled with laughs.
Somehow showrunner John Quaintance has found the key to making this show work, balancing quirky small town life with its marginally dysfunctional family theme that dips into old fashioned buddy cop action and antics. Key to the success of the show is the chemistry of the three leads. It’s easy to believe Meester and Cook could be siblings, growing up with bossy Lou as older sister and Henry as the precocious little brother. And viewers will slip right into the conceit of the grandfatherly Clancy Brown as the kind father to these two kids who squabble like they’re in grade school.
A supporting cast of slightly off kilter town regulars fills in the blanks, making this a show that should be back for at least another season. This is typical network comedy stuff, a bit wackier than Wild Cards. Luke Cook’s very serious cop is seriously funny at times belting out lines like Joe Friday, and other times he’s a kid in a man’s body, a Tom Hanks-type character, especially when he tries to rekindle a relationship with the apple of his eye, grown up former schoolmate Dr. Marci Lane, played by Aussie actress Philippa Northeast. Note: The heavily Australian cast lands the American accents more believably than American actors.
The funniest of the supporting characters is cop Joe Bradley, played by Scott Lee. He’s a former football star with all kinds of interests that make him the right go-to guy for oddball sleuthing duties, including being a big fan of rodeo stars and trying to use a new remote control drone for the first time.
Blazey Best is stellar as Hank’s girlfriend, a Russian immigrant who is in no way pigeon-holed into the typical evil stepmother archetype. She’s scary, she’s savvy, she understands families, and is more than just another supporting character. Show regulars in the crime community include William McKenna, Shamita Siva, and Grace Chow, each getting the opportunity for character growth along with quick and clever comedy set-up gags. And Lou gets a season-long arc where she must decide between high school boyfriend Bobby Dugan (Lincoln Lewis), who would turn over the world for her, and rival county cop Shane Carson (Devon Terrell), who is as awkward about love as Lou.
Keep an eye open for other familiar faces, like Shazam! and Ready or Not co-star Adam Brody, who plays a doctor in one episode.
It’s the new network series to watch even if it’s not on the major networks. Look for some good fun and a few laughs on the firest season of Good Cop/Bad Cop, now streaming on HBO Max, Acorn, and Roku.
