alive8791
Excuse the run-on sentences, and rather extreme dramatic licenses, I find sometimes people are deaf.At first glimpse of this show you are inclined to change the channel, but something draws you in, and shocker, it's actually not the cases, because you have seen most of them before, but you don't mind that. With so many cop shows on today there are only so many plot twists you can add to a homicide, a drug bust gone bad or a B&E, so you ignore that, but what really starts to get your attention is the subtle details that, while some are familiar but you can't pinpoint from where at first, and others are alien although they seem to fit into the show just fine, they grab your attention and won't let you go until you figure out where you know them from and for other details, why you don't know them at all. Let's start with the badge, I have been watching this show one episode after another on the internet, so while I have only been a fan for a short while, I am well into the second season. And it was driving me crazy trying to figure out what city they were supposed to be in. Because I so did not recognize the badge, but by reading a former review I learned they were in Canada, it would have been nice if that had been mentioned somehow in one of the first few episodes, but anyway, so that different badge snagged my attention, then there is the theme song which just throws you into this highly enjoyable time warp back to the days of Cagney and Lacy, and Colombo, and The Streets of San Francisco...ah the good old days. When it wasn't just the forensic details that made a show, back in the good ole' days they knew what charm meant. And that is what this show has, good old fashioned charm. Jessica reminds me of one of those women from the movies in the 30's, she's got glossy hair, a killer smile, legs up to there, and yet she's got that swag of a 30's cop show gumshoe. As far as the tag line associated with the show "She doesn't need to be liked." That is not it at all, first of all she's been married three times, so obviously she enjoys the love and companionship and friendships and all that, that's not why she doesn't get along with a lot of people professionally. The deal is she has a very low bull**it tolerance. She doesn't spit it herself and she doesn't tolerate it from others. Jessica King shows you with her contrasting character, just how much manure people spew out all day long to hide things, their thoughts, their feelings, their motivations, rather than having people see what they really think, or to get away with it, they cover it over in a layer of horse hockey, and that just rubs her the wrong way. With her it's more like, "look if you just don't give a sh*t than just say so but quit feeding me this load of horse manure!" She hates hypocrisy in people and I gotta say I so identify with her on that one. She calls it like it is, and you gotta respect that. As far as her professional conduct which tends to get on most of her colleagues nerves (those not on her team anyway because they benefit professionally from being on the winning team) that is because while they are about their careers, she is about the job. She's not there to get medals, she's not their to kiss a*s, she's not there to look good or to make others look good, she's there because human beings have a horrific tendency towards brutal violence and depravity towards one another and she takes the guardianship of the innocents and victims of these creatures seriously with a single minded ferocity. To take an analogical license, on the display screens of her colleagues there is, home, family, the dog, the kids, my pension, my neighbors, my parents, my boyfriend, my paycheck, taxes, the grocery store etc. etc.........and somewhere in there is a case about something that they are paid to care about. On Jessica's display screen it reads, "FIND THE BAD GUY AND TAKE HIM OUT AT ALL COST, LIVES ARE AT STAKE, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS, and then at the bottom in smaller print it says things like, kiss your husband, buy something to eat, did you have a doctors appointment today?" The triangle between her husband herself and spears is a cliché, it just may be hard to recognize as usually King would be played by a man and spears and the husband would be work wife and actual wife and King would be a supporting character not the main. The only thing I have against the writing of Spears character is he is a little pushy, I mean he's not just a deliberate home wrecker, he sets to it with enthusiasm, "Come on let's break up this happy home so I can get at the girl!" he says with gleeful baleful intent as he lays the TNT charges. But then you have a serious problem with hating him for one very annoying and yet accurate reason, he is a better match for King than her husband, so against your morals, you find yourself rooting for the home wrecker!
