Review -- The Good Guys

The Good Guys
Bait and Switch
Fox Mondays 9 p.m. (summer)

The second episode of Fox's cop show parody/paradigm improves on the pilot episode in a few subtle ways, but it's clear (at least for now) that creator Matt Nix and company have a formula for this show, and are largely going to stick to it. The Good Guys is, after all, parodying a procedural genre and thus the episodes stick to a pretty much set format. It starts with Jack and Dan investigating an incredibly minor case (here, it's a rock thrown through the bedroom window of two young women - they're just roommates, despite Dan's conception of the crime scene) which then is revealed to be somehow related to much more serious criminal activity (here, English car thieves), and then there's your standard relationship drama on the side with Jack and Liz (here it comes up after fellow cop Kiersten - hey it's that one professor from Community! - asks Jack out on a date). Though it's essentially the same exact formula as the pilot, Bait and Switch is more consistently funny and utilizes side characters to better effect.

While Liz (Jenny Wade) was given almost nothing to do in the pilot, here she is given...well, a little bit more to do. Mainly, she's there to look pretty and provide a natural love interest for Jack, but it was nice to get a little bit more detail about the odd "friendly" relationship Liz and Jack have established. Put to somewhat better use was Julius (Ron 'Reaco' Lee), who was seen in the pilot, but who I was a little surprised to see again so quickly. It's usually a good sign when a show has a kind of character like Julius that it can draw on occasionally, and Julius served as a good foil to Dan in this episode. However, some slightly concerning information: Diana Maria Riva, the fourth series regular, was nowhere to be seen in this episode (and this after being essentially a non-entity in the pilot).

Why am I spending so much time talking about side characters? Well, for one, there's not a whole lot to say about Hanks and Whitford in the lead roles - both are still doing solid work, and I still like the dynamic between them. Secondly, it's crucial for a procedural like The Good Guys to develop its ensemble cast and recurring characters fairly quickly. We know the formula each episode is going to follow. We know the characters of Jack and Dan already (Jack is the ambitious young straight man, Dan is afraid of the "computer machine"). It's pretty easy to see how this show could get old real fast, and having other interesting characters can prevent that from happening when they're used well.

Another reason I'm not talking about the specifics of the episode: there isn't a whole lot to say. There was some quality humor (again, not really riotously funny, but enough for a few chuckles) and fine action sequences - Dan running into the warehouse, firing his gun into the air after crashing a car through the windows was great. I wasn't so fond of the flashback method of storytelling - it wasn't really necessary for the plot and it can easily lead to lazy writing, but it wasn't particularly egregious here. But that's about all I really can say - it was enjoyable, but it's the exact same formula as the last episode.

That's really the problem with reviewing a procedural like The Good Guys - each episode is, at its core, the same as all the others. That's why people love to watch them - if you like the characters and the formula the show follows, it's very accessible and fun (think Law and Order). And I'm not saying that the show needs to be serialized - but this is why it's more important to discuss the characters and the basis of the show than it is the plot of the episode. And unless The Good Guys shows much more drastic improvement in developing the other characters, or starts coming up with inventive twists on its basic formula, or starts adding in serialized elements, I can't see myself absolutely loving or hating any one episode. But hey, this one worked fine for me!

Grade: B+

"The only place a woman should punch a man is in the face"