In The Mood For Something Good

The title of the post is a play on the title of the Foghat album "In The Mood For Something Crude".

I felt it was appropriate; as the guys who sang 'Slow Ride' are the favourite group of Dan Stark, fallen star of 'The Good Guys'.  Played with great cheesy gusto (and a great cheesy mustache) by the inimitable Bradley Whitford, Dan is a formerly excellent Dallas street cop who has intentionally never upgraded beyond the 1980's.  Eschewing the technology and techniques of the present, Dan avoids demon CSI computers and 'smartyphones', navigating solely on guts, damnit!

His partner Jack (Colin Hanks), of course, is better with procedures and social niceties, but his snarky attitude caused the lieutenant (Diana Maria Riva as Ana Ruiz) to pair him up with her other headache and assign this dastardly duo the crimes of lowest importance.  Jack hopes to make good with her, and more importantly with his lawyer ex-girlfriend (Jenny Wade as Liz Traynor).

Add an informant with a heart of gold he's gladly sell you and buckets of other eccentric crooks.

You've got yourself 'The Good Guys', or as Colin Hanks wanted to call it: 'Opposite Buddy Cop Show'.  

You've also won ME over completely, and I feel like that's saying a lot coming from the guy who's barely interested if one of the cops isn't Tenctonese or both of them aren't stationed in Demeter City on the planet Altor.  But, what it lacks in overt elements of the fantastic, it makes up for in clever, inventive silliness, great action scenes and plenty of heart.  I dare you to watch this and not enjoy the leads and their respective ladies.

Hanks may be the funniest uptight straight man since Aykroyd's Joe Friday.  

And Whitford can do no wrong as far as I know. He wins me over like Dan Stark wins the hearts of the ladies.  Oh, yeah.  At least in his own mind.  OH. YEAH.

Plus the upcoming bonus appearance of Gary Cole as Dan's often-cited old partner Frank Savage will be worth the watch, I assure you.

It's seven months old and airs on Fox, which means it has somehow dodged cancellation 47 billion times. MAYBE BECAUSE IT IS NOT TAKING ITSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.  It's not another dime-a-dozen crime drama, it's a crime comedy for a culture that forgets to laugh at itself.

I strongly encourage you to pull over, leap across the hood of your vehicle with great abandon, then watch this show while firing a pretend gun wildly into the air.