Posted on: July 16, 2010 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

In 2009, TNT’s cop drama Dark Blue quietly flew under the radar while paint-by-number police shows on the major networks got the lion’s share of the publicity. Thankfully TNT has the patience to let their shows mature and ordered a second season.

The series centers on Carter Shaw (Dylan McDermott), who heads up an undercover unit for the LAPD. His crew includes a trio of brooding young cops and while the typical cop drama character stereotypes are in place, the writing and plots are refreshingly original. Not every episode has a happy ending and they manage to avoid the cliché soft adult alt rock songs over the closing scenes as is typical in just about every TV drama nowadays (well, most of the time).

The one glaring problem with the show (aside from Carter’s comically oversized sunglasses) is the in-your-face product placements by MGD 64 (That one’s on the house Miller). Product placements are supposed to be subtle, but by the end of the series, you not only see shots of the beer logo in every single bar scene and close ups of the bottles in nearly every episode, but bartenders are calling out the name of the brand. To call it distracting is an understatement.

Dark Blue – The Complete First Season/4 DVDs/2010/Warner Bros/431 minutes

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