November 3, 2009

bradley is back

According to The Hollywood Reporter, we'll be seeing a lot more of Bradley Whitford pretty soon. Let's take a moment to soak that in.

Bradley will be staring in an hourlong series by Matt Nix for FOX called Jack and Dan along with Colin Hanks. It's a straight-to-series project, meaning there won't be a traditional pilot or pilot presentation. FOX has just ordered 13 episodes straight away (because Bradley Whitford is the man), which will most likely premiere in fall 2010.

The show is described as an "action comedy in the tone of Nix's USA Network series Burn Notice." Jack (played by Hanks) is an ambitious, by-the-book detective with a habit of undermining himself in a dead end position at the LAPD. His new partner Dan (played by Whitford) is a drunken, loose cannon veteran cop who only keeps his job because of a heroic act years before.

I'm really glad Colin Hanks was cast for this part. I've always liked his work, most recently as a priest on Mad Men, but it seems like he's never really broken out as a major actor in his age group (leaving the family connection aside). Hopefully, this means he was holding out for the good roles. I'm glad he has this chance for a major network series.
And I like the "action comedy" style that we've been seeing more and more with shows like Chuck and Psyche. That said, I'm a little disappointed this is yet another law enforcement show. I really didn't want to the plot description to bore me, and it did.

Bradley has a history of major ensemble casts with relatively risky or nontraditional plots. There will never be another West Wing. And it clearly didn't work out for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which I loved, but oh well). And maybe it will be good to see Bradley flex his muscles in a much simpler context. But the cop/investigator/catch-the-bad-guy plot is everywhere. It's become the go-to premise because it almost always works (with the right ingredients). I just wanted something more for one of my favorite actors, but I'll put my jaded ramblings aside and hope for the best.

Bradley is back!

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