Crime Story

Bought Series 2 in Fopp for a fiver out of curiosity, then 1 on eBay for £6.69, having read good things about it. Enjoyed the two-hour pilot. Now onto episode 3. Dennis Farina (an ex-cop in real life) is first-rate playing the typically world-weary detective who lives the job 24/7 but his fellow cops are 1D as yet.
Spoilt by the retro-styling excellence of ‘Mad Men’, it’s tempting to dismiss the look of this 60s-set show as a bit shoddy, but after a while I got used to that. Some of the clothes are a bit suspect, likewise some of the hairstyles, so as far as the look goes, the cars are the stars.
It seems that nothing made in the 80s had immunity from that decade’s complete lack of decent style. Even the inside of the police station looks like a set from a naff soap.
When using original tracks such as Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ or The Impressions’ ‘It’s Alright’ the music works brilliantly (how could it fail?), but unfortunately the original incidental music dates it terribly and some wise guy thought a synthesiser would set the right tone along with some awful blues rock.
But it features the Jon Polito (who’s also superb in ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’ and ‘Miller’s Crossing’) as a crime boss, the direction is good (especially the department store shoot-out in the pilot), the dialogue’s decent, the story line seems well plotted and I still want to watch more, so it has something going for it...possibly just the shoot-outs, cop talk and cars which all make for entertaining escapism.