“APB” is the cop show as a video game.
It’s the story of a tech billionaire, Gideon Reeves (Justin Kirk), who takes over Chicago’s 13th district police force after his friend is murdered while trying to save his life. Reed develops an app — called APB — for the police to download onto their phones in order to better track suspects when they’re scaling fences, jumping out of windows and performing other criminal stunts.
The show’s creators, including Matt Nix (“Burn Notice”), ask us to believe that the Chicago mayor (Nestor Serrano) would allow a rich civilian to run a police precinct — rather than have Mr. Moneybags fund the campaigns of his opposition the next time he runs for office.
Picture Jeff Bezos running any New York police precinct and you’ll understand how silly this all is. Just what are they smoking out in La La Land?
Anyway, once Reeves has assumed power, he throws money and technology at the city’s crime problem. State-of-the-art tasers, bulletproof vests, police cars and the aforementioned app appear within minutes. Experienced cops like Theresa Murphy (Natalie Martinez) try to school Reed in tried-and-true methods, but he’s a hard sell, even though local kids have downloaded the app and reported fake crimes as a joke. He’s determined to catch the man who killed his friend, and even breaks out a drone equipped with a camera to follow him (along with one of his super-duper squad cars).
Chase scenes are the backbone of police dramas, and having them one step removed erases any narrative tension.
The message that improved technology can help any beleaguered police department is understandable, but in one scene we watch members of the department watching Murphy hone in on the prime suspect on a large video screen. Chase scenes are the backbone of police dramas, and having them one step removed, like this, erases any narrative tension the writers were hoping to establish. The other hallmark of a good cop show like “Hill Street Blues” or “NYPD Blue” is the rapport established between partners while driving their beat. With everyone staring at their phones instead of listening to a real APB (All Points Bulletin) on the police radio, there’s little chance of that happening.
Perhaps that’s the point. If Fox is trying to appeal to millennial viewers who watch all entertainment — and gather all information — on their phones, “APB” might be the first cop show/video game for a new era. But something tells me they were thinking 88 episodes and a first-run syndication cycle. By then, the millennials will have moved on.
As Reeves, Kirk captures the foolhardy arrogance of the successful businessman who’s ten times removed from appreciating how people really do their jobs. Kirk, who had a promising start to his TV career playing Mary-Louise Parker’s brother on “Weeds,” has been trying to land his own series for a while, after the hapless “Animal Practice” on NBC. We wish him luck in his future endeavors.
There are some welcome familiar faces here including Ernie Hudson, but they don’t have much to do. Martinez adds a note of grace as the single mom/cop Murphy, but if producers were hoping to establish some sexual chemistry between her and Kirk, they better hop to it and turn the show into a crime comedy like “Burn Notice.”
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