After the fatal shooting of his wife, Det. Wes Kennedy (Robert Desiderio) quit the SWAT team to be with his kids, rebellious 15 year old Robin (Christina Applegate) and Kevin (Jonathan Ward). He is working the night shift in a tough downtown precinct. He is a superior investigator which only gets him ostracized by his less committed colleagues.
This ABC drama is 13 episodes with very poor viewership. They start with a problem in the pilot. The show wants to have this edgy teenage outsider world and the band is playing reggae swing. There must be a hard punk band somewhere in L. A. It's almost laughable but it's indicative of a deeper issue. The creators are E. Arthur Kean and Michael Zinberg. Kean is a veteran writer whose best work is in the 70's and Zinberg seems to be more noted as a TV executive and director. The writing comes from a previous generation although it is trying for gritty with edgy material. They dip too often into melodrama with a couple of good episodes hitting the bull's eye.
Desiderio is a TV actor most known for his soap roles. He's not really the cop type. As for his family life, I am a little confused about the kids' ages. Apparently, they're both 15 and Kevin is the older one for some reason. Are they twins? At least, they have Christina Applegate. She has a short platinum do. She is melodramatic, but she is playing the rebellious teen. There are too many instances where characters are being dumb. Dumb kids are fine, but dumb cop daddy is less fine. I cannot believe the dad when Robin gets arrested. The first words out of his mouth should be "Don't say a word to anyone". He is an investigator and does very little of it with his kid on the line. This show is only able to sometimes fulfill its ambitions of better drama.
