Dark Blue puts atmosphere before story

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Television loves the troubled, iconoclastic loner.
Outside, theyre antisocial, quirky, radical and unique. But inside, theyre just wounded puppies, warped out of the social norm by tragedy; given half a chance, theyd be frolicking on the lawn with their loved ones.
Which means theyre not really radical or unique after all. Especially not since so many shows have abandoned actual character development for this form of shorthand. Dark Blues Lt. Carter Shaw, who heads a covert undercover group with shady detectives and no oversight, is one of the latter. He wears sunglasses indoors. Doesnt shave. Has insomnia. Wields a shotgun. Emotes, I see things that need to be fixed. And Has A Tragic Past. Of course.
That hes played by Dylan McDermott who even in 8 oclock shadow seems like your nice neighbor could cause cognitive dissonance-related whiplash in anyone. TNTs Dark Blue looks good. Executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Danny Cannon and Jonathan Littman wrote the CSI low-lit, color-saturated playbook, and theres a harrowing opening scene that owes David Fincher his props.
But Blue is a confusing mix of cliche and posturing that seems more interested in framing a shot than telling a story. Im still not 100 percent sure just what the lead bad guys gang actually does to be bad. Sure, they torture, set fires and shoot one another, but Jack of all crimes? Do you get a WGA card for that?
Being thrown in medias res doesnt help: One of Shaws crew is so far undercover he might have flipped, so the pilot spends its time figuring out which side hes on. In the process, the narrative just grows murkier and murkier until bullets fly, people get shot, the credits roll and youre left wondering, What the hell was that?
But not in an I must come back next week to find out way. Cop shows are a dime a dozen, and highly stylized ones briefly do well as shiny objects that entrance viewers. But nothing lasts without a core of direction and a protagonist who inspires intrigue and curiosity rather than eye-rolling. When the title of your series seems to describe its lighting setup better than anything else about it, its time to reach for the off switch. (please visit our entertainment blog via www.reuters.com or on http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)