Dark Blue Gets Booted; Does It Matter?

Dark Blue seemed to fit the time-tested TNT model: get a well-recognized centerpiece, build a clever team around him/her, and set 'em off to explore some familiar but cleverly rendered territory. It worked with The Closer and Leverage and Memphis Beat; it seems to be working .. okay ... with Rizzoli and Isles. (C'mon, who can resist Angie Harmon?).  And look: Dylan McDermott! From The Practice! HE would be good, right?

Not so much. Dermott was perfectly adequate -- though come on, the perpetually-three-day-old-beard thing seems strangely outdated already, doesn't it? What is this, a revival of Miami Vice? But even with the yeoman service of Nikki Aycox and, more recently, the redoubtable Tricia Helfer (sans Monroe bouffant) .. the show just lacked chemistry.

It's not originality. Frankly, none of the TNT shows -- except maybe Leverage -- can claim that. There is an almost pleasant scent of the familiar about the plots and characters from most of their output.  But that's okay. It's like reading every book that Robert B. Parker ever wrote after the first five; it's like reading that Dickens or Rowling or King novel one more time; it's like going back and watching Cheers or Wings again when you have a cold and there's nothing else on. Familiar is not bad. It's comforting. Nourishing.  Harmless.

But there has to be something more. There has to be chemistry. You can see it in all the other extant TNT shows. Nobody's going to be giving Rizzoli and Isles any awards for "original" "writing" (both terms used here advisedly). But Harmon and Sasha Alexander are such fun to watch, strike such sparks, that you forgiven the Swiss cheese plotting and hackneyed characters. And sometimes you need X-Ray Specs to see any plot at all in Memphis Beat, but really -- who cares? Jason Lee is a peach, and casting DJ Qualls, the quintessential geek-boy of 2010, was a stroke of genius.

Dark Blue just didn't have any of that to offer.  No sparks between McDermott and his co-stars. No wonderfully eccentric supporting cast. No ... nothing, really. And it was apparent from the start. Decent opening-night ratings were followed by an unreversed slide from S1E2, and never really stopped. 

Not that TNT has given up on the formula. Look for Falling Skies, the net's toss into the post-apocalyptic sweepstakes (Hey, Walking Dead! How's it goin'?) about a hardy band of survivors six months after the aliens invade. Centerpiece: the surprisingly convincing Noah Wylie, with the awesome Moon Bloodgood at his side. Once more into the breach: recognizable centerpiece, strong support, and off we go.

But as for Dark Blue? Actually, it's kind of spooky: it's already disappeared from the TNT Network web site as if it never existed.  Brr. But it's understandable. You can't win 'em all.  Even TNT needs the right chemistry to truly explode.