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abbott-bill
Reviews
19-2 (2014)
Superb police procedural. Every episode seems better than previous. Satisfying ending.
My wife and I were very impressed with season 1, episode 1, very smart writing, good acting, we thought, "That was great, but they can't possibly keep it going at that level." Ah, but they could! Every episode in season 1 is better than the one before it. How is that even possible?
Two mis-matched cops, one country, one city, are paired up after separate tragedies they didn't cause, but have to deal with. Other cops in Montreal's 19th Precinct are competent or better, their sergeant is experienced and dynamic. The commander is an unpromising weasel. Police work is mostly reacting to what criminals do. A lot less gunfire and fewer car chases happen than in U. S. cop shows,
Most police work isn't exotic. Innocent persons sometimes need help, and call the police. A lot of crime is unsophisticated. Fights by drunks in bars, or on the streets. Theft, robbery and assault. Even murder. Alleged criminals have to be apprehended and booked into jail. Investigations have to establish who did what to whom, and when. Prosecutors have to be briefed, and testimony offered in court. Not everyone arrested is a criminal, or guilty of a particular crime. Accidents and mistakes mislead and complicate all human stories.
There isn't a murder in every episode. One story starts with a homeless man the city cop has seen before, found poorly sheltered outside an office building, with a sub-freezing night on the way.. In another story, the partners go to a highschool in response to an active shooter. Alcohol stands behind a lot of foolishness, but not all of it.
On our most binge-ing day, we watched 5 episodes. With breaks for meal preparation.
Its about people, innocent, cops and criminals. Awful things happen, or happened in the past, .PG-13 or older, sometimes. Persuasively written and acted.
The Paul Hogan Show (1973)
Saw reruns on California TV in 1980s. Some priceless stuff, some not.
My all time favorite, Hogan makes a school lunch, PB&J sandwich + fruit. In a generic suburban kitchen, narrating and acting as if he was less than 10 years old. He can't use the bread at the end of the bag, its stale and that's poison, so he reaches into the middle for a couple of fresh pieces... etc., etc., etc. No better than it should be, but it's concise and memorable. See it and if you don't enjoy it at all, I'm sincerely sorry for you.
Second favorite is 3 or 4 carracture Australian men with corks hanging from their hats having shrimp on the barbie with beer. Beer cans are in insulated sleeves hanging on strings around their necks. The characters are dim and the project demands all their ability, The funny part is the breathless, semi-whispered, narration as if this is some ethnographic film of an isolated and exotic society unknown to the modern world. So its a 2 part joke, and, mostly neither part is stunning in its originality. But it's very competent, and as the school lunch bit, concise and memorable.
Special reason to love this show. The only mainstream TV show I ever saw with a prosthetic beer belly that one character or another would wear under their tee shirt. Not makeup magic of any kind, its a prop, it's treated as a prop. It makes the wearer too big to get through narrow spaces, makes them appear to drink too much, etc. It gets rolled out for one or more characters in most episodes, because, you know, you know that guy. Or you're afraid of becoming that guy.