Article first published as GOLDEN BOY Review at Seat42F.
Grade: 85%
Grade: 85%
At first glance, CBS’s GOLDEN BOY,
premiering this week, may seem like more than your typical cop drama.
After an intense opening, the story moves seven years into the future,
where we see Walter William Clark Jr. (Theo James, Bedlam) being
interviewed by a reporter (Richard Kind, Luck, Spin City) about how he
has become the youngest police commissioner of New York City, ever.
This is a great draw. We know that the
older Walter looks quite a bit aged, pointing to a hard journey. There
is regret in his tone as he talks about the price he paid to rise so
quickly, so we know there will be tragedy. The fact that he is now
police commissioner means that the series may move away from solving
murders on the street, eventually, as we do have seven years of story to
get through first.
Clark is terrific, really letting the
pathos play on his face, and his American accent is pretty good. His
character is an egomaniacal, overconfident jerk, so we need these future
scenes to show us that he has grown, and eventually gotten beyond the
arrogance of his youth. Probably. And knowing there will be movement
built in is nice.
But then we get to the meat of the plot,
beginning when Walter, after heroic actions, chooses to be on the
homicide squad. He isn’t accepted at first because he’s young and hasn’t
earned his bones. But because he really is as good as he thinks he is,
he proves himself in a single hour to his co-workers.
I keep expecting Walter to screw up in
the “Pilot,” as we so often see in such main characters, the drama being
that they really aren’t as ready as they think they are. Walter is
special, though, so GOLDEN BOY chooses the alternate tack, building him
up, rather than tearing him down. Because we’ve seen where he is in
seven years, we know fall will never seriously come, at least not
professionally, though perhaps personally.
The problem is, if he never screws up,
how will he learn? Walter’s assigned partner, Detective Don Owen (Chi
McBride, Pushing Daisies, Boston Public), two years away from his
retirement, is the only one who sees this, and while Don is a patient
man, one wonders how long his patience with the upstart might last.
Don is set up to be a finite character.
With only a couple of years left on the force, this means we are told
that Don may not stick around for the long haul, even though we see his
picture on future Walter’s desk.
However, because this is CBS, I strongly
suspect that these hints of a great, sweeping story of a genius who
does great things will be reduced to a formula. Until that day, seven
years in the future, when Walter takes the big office, he will be
solving a case every week. They could even stretch it longer than seven
years, should the show prove popular, or make Walter the first
commissioner to be out catching the bad guys himself. Don could put off
retirement, sticking around for the duration, which is what I expect to
see, given CBS’s track record.
Is it fair to pigeon hole what, on the
face, appears to be a somewhat compelling series just because of the
network it is on? I think so. Blue Bloods and Hawaii Five-0 looked like
they could break the mold, but have been reduced back to the typical CBS
fare. I have little confidence that GOLDEN BOY will be any different.
Part of my worry stems from the fact
that the rest of the cast is pretty much what one would expect from such
a series. There’s the hotshot jerk, Christian Arroyo (Kevin Alejandro,
True Blood, Southland), the popular guy who Walter wants to be, even
though viewers know he’ll be better off listening to Don. Christian has a
softer partner in Deborah McKenzie (Bonnie Somerville, Cashmere Mafia),
a pretty woman we are told is tough, but who is nice to Walter, and
could even be a love interest. Another detective, Joe Diaco (Holt
McCallany, Lights Out), is the likeable rogue, who will probably get in
trouble because of all the rules he breaks in skimming connections. And
finally, the obligatory troubled family member, Walter’s drug-addicted
sister Agnes (Stella Maeve, The Runaways), who is supposed to show the
human side of Walter, and provide a distraction form the casework.
If the supporting cast weren’t such a
predictable lineup of personalities, I might hold out hope for GOLDEN
BOY. As it is, I appreciate the “Pilot,” but will probably not become a
regular watcher. The audience that will love it is those that eat up
CBS’s cop shows, as this one will probably be more of the same. This is
regrettable, because the cast is full of amazing actors who deserve
better, but won’t get it while locked into a long-term contract.
GOLDEN BOY premieres Tuesday, February 26th at 10 p.m. ET.
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