Commentary

Stop Or She'll Shoot! J. Lo Hits The Streets In NBC Cop Show

The central challenge with this new cop show would seem to be: How do you turn glamourpuss Jennifer Lopez into a credible New York City police detective?

Well, you tease out her hair, put her in street clothes and minimize her makeup. The rest is up to her and her acting skills. Lo and behold, it turns out she’s up to the challenge.

She’s perfectly believable as a tough TV cop in plainclothes, and she more than holds her own in “Shades of Blue,” the cop show in which she stars along with Ray Liotta and Drea de Matteo.

The show premieres Thursday night (Jan. 7) at 10 Eastern on NBC. By coincidence (if not design), it follows “American Idol” on Fox, in which J. Lo is a judge. Thus, Dame Lopez enjoys the unique status of starring in two prime-time series on two different networks practically at the same time. And on some nights such as tonight, she can be seen for all three hours of network prime time.

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In “Shades of Blue,” Lopez plays Det. Harlee Santos, a veteran of the force whose work seems to require that she patrol the gray area between law and lawlessness. She is one of a group of veteran detectives who keep order in their precinct by exacting payments and other various conditions from local lowlifes.

For example, this crew of detectives -- led by the Ray Liotta character -- allows certain drug dealers to operate in the area, just as long as they don’t deal near churches and schools, don’t deal dope cut with chemicals that will poison and/or kill their customers, and, last but not least, be willing to share their profits with the cops.

In “Shades of Blue,” this “system” is portrayed as the best, or at least the most realistic, way of keeping a lid on crime. For Det. Santos, the extra money comes in handy because she’s a single mom with a gifted teenage daughter in an expensive private school.

“Shades of Blue” is a police-corruption story, and the corrupt system these detectives have taken pains to set up starts to unravel in the very first episode -- an unraveling that one can assume will continue over the course of the season.

The show is filmed in New York in locations all over town. It is well-made, well-acted, smartly written and looks great too. But here’s the problem: There is nothing in “Shades of Blue” that you haven’t seen before in a TV cop show, starting with the title and its use of the word “Blue.” How many of these have there been?

Starting with “The Blue Knight,” I can think of: “Hill Street Blues,” “NYPD Blue,” “Dark Blue,” “Pacific Blue,” “Rookie Blue” and “Blue Bloods.” I get it, though: “Shades of Blue” is supposed to signify the way the borderline between law and disorder is blurred, a situation that results in police taking extralegal measures (to say the least) to keep the peace.

In the premiere episode NBC provided for preview, the Lopez character finds herself smack in the middle of the unraveling of the corruption in which she so eagerly plays a part. As a result, there’s a lot at stake for her and the other characters -- chiefly Ray Liotta’s character, Det. Matt Wozniak (nicknamed “Woz,” just like Steve Wozniak, for no apparent reason).

In the scenes in which Liotta appears, you cannot take your eyes off of him. The show is lucky to have him, and so is Lopez, who gets to act with him. Together, they make “Shades of Blue” worth watching.

“Shades of Blue” premieres Thursday night (Jan. 7) at 10 Eastern on NBC.

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