• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, February 14, 2025

The quirky Pacific Northwest is the setting for yet another TV show about small-town detectives in a closeknit community.

The new one -- titled “Good Cop/Bad Cop” and premiering next Wednesday on The CW -- is positioned as a dramedy, a word that has been around for decades to describe shows that defy categorization because they possess characteristics associated with both drama and comedy.

The thing about that coinage is that it is not always accurate to define the very shows it is meant to describe and categorize.

Take “Good Cop/Bad Cop.” It is difficult define as either comedy or drama. The comedy is not really comedy in the traditional sense. No one will confuse this show with “Frasier” or “Seinfeld.” Call it lighthearted, but not uproarious.

The drama is not really dramatic either throughout most of the show, although something dramatic does happen in the season premiere -- somebody gets killed with a shotgun in the midst of a drugstore robbery.

It is a terrible, violent crime, especially because it takes place in a bucolic small town with a heavenly name -- fictional Eden Vale, Washington, pop. 9,347.

One man is shot to death with a blast from a shotgun and another is seriously wounded in the shoulder by a high-powered handgun.

Later, another bloody murder is committed in a manner I have never seen before in a lifetime of encountering creative murders in violent TV shows.

And yet, this kind of crime, which is virtually unheard of in Eden Vale, is treated lightheartedly, as if bloody corpses turn up on the floor of the local apothecary every other week or so.

This misdirection did not ruin the show, however, as the mystery of who was behind the crime was solved before the hour was over, due to clever, TV-style detective work.

Leading the investigation is the tiny police department’s only detective, played by one-time “Gossip Girl” star Leighton Meester, 36 (above photo).

The department is a family affair. The captain she reports to happens to be her father (Clancy Brown). 

As if this nepotism isn’t enough, in the premiere episode the chief adds a second detective to help her out, at her request. The new hiree is her estranged younger brother, Henry (Luke Cook).  

Henry has come back to Eden Vale after failing to qualify for a detective’s shield in the Seattle Police Department due mainly to character defects.

He is caustic, critical, inconsiderate and mean to everyone he meets. The Seattle PD couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

What’s he like? He is a struggle to describe. He has obsessive-compulsive tendencies like Monk, and social-skill challenges like the Good Doctor.

He is unusually intelligent, and seemingly able to absorb and remember just about anything. For example, at one point in Episode One, he suddenly starts speaking fluent Russian, which was news to dad and sis.

At his new job, Henry is partnered with his sister under the bemused supervision of their father. And that’s basically the scenario.

In the show, she’s the good cop and he’s the bad one. They are an odd couple who will evidently drive each other crazy, otherwise there would be no show.

“Good Cop/ Bad Cop” premieres Wednesday (February 19) at 9 p.m. Eastern on The CW.