The Good Guys

It's been a while since I've given a shout out to a show which should tell you something right off the bat. I kind of stumbled on this show by accident when I was flipping around on Hulu. I vaguely remember seeing the teaser trailer earlier this season during Human Target, which is also a pretty fun show by the way, and I remember doing a double take when I saw Bradley "Josh Lymon" Whitford doing somersaults over a Mustang sporting aviator glasses and a Magnum P.I. stash. I was intrigued but it didn't specify when it was airing, just sometime in the summer. So of course it was forgotten until a few weeks ago I was browsing around Hulu and I found it again. I watched the first couple episodes and I found myself laughing pretty hard. In a way it fits in with shows like My Name is Earl and Starsky & Hutch but just when you think the redneck silly shtick goes too far they ramp up the action to reveal a different kind of show. The dialogue is pretty darn great and the pacing is fun--keeps things rolling on.

The Good Guys series follows two very different cops. Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford), a drunken mess of a cop who still thinks he's living in 1985. He's inept and afraid of computers (which makes for some funny scenes) and he's always trying to get poon no matter if he's on or off the clock. He's old school but he retains his cop instincts which makes for an entertaining and funny setup. His partner, Jack Bailey (Colin Hanks), is the opposite. He's smart and precise but a little green. Actually it' kind of eerie how much Hanks is like his pop. He sounds exactly the same and makes the same kind of faces--it'll freak you out at first. You think you might be watching Dragnet, "Hey where is Dan Aykroyd..." Then he moves his face again and it's gone. Weird. But he plays a pretty good straight man to Whitford's looney Dan Stark. The reason he's partnered with the train wreck in the first place... guy's got no head for politics. No one at the top wants to promote Bailey cause he makes them look like idiots, sort of reminded me of Hot Fuzz. In fact that is a perfect example. If they made Hot Fuzz an American TV show then it would totally be this fucking show.

So check this one out if you find yourself hot and bored this summer, save it from cancellation. Apparently it's not doing so hot in the ratings. It aires on Fox Friday at 9PM.