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Detroit 187 is set to return on January 4th and last month I got to visit the Detroit set to do on-set interviews with the cast and crew. While police procedural dramas usually aren’t my thing, I really enjoy the sense of humor interwoven with the storylines of the detectives. Leading up to the return of the show I will have a new video interview with a cast or crew member, and today I have my sit-down with D.J. Cotrona, who plays Detective John Stone in the show, a cocky but effective detective recently promoted from Vice. Hit the jump to check out the full interview: D.J. was a pleasure to talk with an easy going charisma. His character in the show is a bit cocky, but knows how to get the job done. He is quick on his feet but is humanly flawed in that he stumbles here and there.

ABC‘s Detroit 1-8-7 (premiering tonight) has a few stumbling blocks to get past if it hopes to draw in the kind of ratings that are going to keep it around. The first, and most obvious, is the simple fact that it’s a homicide investigation series swimming upstream through a flood of new and returning cop shows and legal dramas. As much as the genre has a lot of historical momentum, there are probably only so many people can watch.

The second is that it is a police drama that abandoned its shtick. Originally working a “documentary” angle, the show ditched that idea midstream in favor of a simple, straight-forward drama. The first couple of episodes still tell that tale by way of the camerawork, and the occasional glimpse into the lens. It still looks like its working the gimmick, there just isn’t any mention of it. I...

Detroit is a beaten-down city. It's been bleeding jobs and residents for years, and as the opening voice-over in "Detroit 1-8-7" tells us, the city has one of the highest murder rates in America.

Those dire real-life circumstances make for a very rich setting for a crime drama, though, and ABC's new series (which premieres at 10 p.m. Et Tuesday, Sept. 21) uses the Motor City extremely well. The location shooting and some very strong performances lift it above standard cop-show fare.

The show you'll see Tuesday night is different than the one the show's creators originally intended. The first pilot was shot documentary-style, and the cops occasionally talking to the camera worked pretty well. But after the pilot filmed, the city of Detroit banned film crews from following cops on the job, the result of a real-life incident in which a young girl was killed during a raid filmed by a reality-show crew.

When putting together a police procedural, there’s a couple routes you can go:

1) Stick with the tried and true, building on the foundation established Hill Street Blues, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, and countless others

2) Lay your own spin on the formula, such that each episode is more than just a case of the week

The latter is the quickest way into my heart, if not the public’s, as evidenced by ABC’s quirky (and short-lived) midseason effort The Unusuals. When ABC went back to the drawing board, they came up with Detroit 1-8-7 for the fall season. The show was firmly implanted in camp 2) as a mockumentary that tracks the adventures of a group of Detroit cops. 1-8-7 retooled over the summer, ditching the doc format, and is now stuck in the ether between 1) and 2). My review after the jump.

Detroit 1-8-7 is a window into the...

The time is finally upon us for the 2010 fall TV season to kick off next week with the return of all your favorite series and the premiere of some brand new ones for you to sink your teeth into (or forget about completely). We’ve been posting reviews here and there for several of the new shows, but right now we’re just going to give you the line-up of most of the new series hitting the different networks complete with plot description and premiere time. You can find the line-up after the jump (organized chronologically by premiere date), but stay tuned for more pilot reviews as the fall season starts next week as well as episode recaps for several prominent series both new and old.

Sunday, September 19th

Boardwalk Empire (HBO) – 9pm Est/8pm Cst

The undisputed ruler of Atlantic City is the town’s Treasurer, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson,...

The fall television season is nearly upon us, with just about everything premiering between September 20-26. CBS, NBC, and ABC have all taken the opportunity to announce the premiere week synopses for all their new and returning shows via press release.

So if you’d like to see what the networks have planned for you on The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, The Event, The Office, Castle, Desperate Housewives, and many more, hit the jump.

The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning adventure reality series hosted by Emmy-nominated host, Phil Keoghan, which pits teams, of two, against each other on a trek around the world. At every destination, each team will have to compete in a series of challenges, some mental and some physical, and only when the tasks are completed will they learn of their next location. Teams who are the...