Training Day

"Training Day" has a problem with tone. I liked the film, which has a gritty feel to it and an unrelenting drive to a dramatic climax. The television show, on the other hand, gives us the same two characters--the rookie and the grizzled veteran--but shifts from tone to tone. It seems to start as a serious, intense action film, then morphs into a semi-silly sequence where the veteran (Bill Paxton) takes out a house full of bad guys with a grin on his face and wise cracks at the ready(reminiscent of "Die Hard"), then a tragic occurrence, followed by a clichéd visit to a drug dealer (who has a pet baboon).

Clichés run rampant in the first episode which is further ruined by dialogue that leaves nothing to the imagination of the viewer, spelling out the conflicts, anxieties, and doubts of the two main characters.

Bill Paxton does a good job of playing the irreverent smart aleck, and a film like "Guardians of the Galaxy" would suit him well. Justin Cornwell, who is the cop in training, plays the earnest detective well. But the show lacks a consistent focus.

TV shows about bad cops are all too frequent lately. Some have been pretty good (first season of "Rogue" with Thandie Newton) and some have been slow to start ("Shades of Blue"). The latest version is "Training Day", based loosely on the hit 2001 film of the same name starring Denzel Washington and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Fuqua returns as the executive producer of the TV show, with a few changes, not the least being that it is no longer a "day" but an entire season they are shooting for.

Bill Paxton plays the "bad cop" role and he does surprisingly well. I also like Katrina Law who plays a hard ass woman on the team.The trainee (Justin Cornwell) doesn't fare so well, and no one else really stands out. Think of the quality of the supporting cast from the film (Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Raymond J Barry, Eva Mendes, Raymond Cruz) and the TV show comes nowhere near that level.

It's all pretty predictable and there are no real insights or interesting characters. It's all one-dimensional and been told before.

It gets better with each episode, but once again, nothing you haven't seen before.

PS - In case you didn't know, Bill Paxton died on Feb 25 2017 at the age of 61.He was a pretty good actor and his work in this series gets better and better with each episode. Personally I think it's among his finest performances.

Loved this series, broke my heart that CBS did not honor Bill Paxton by airing the last episodes after his death. The story was a departure from the film made some years ago, but the acting was good, the action superb. Strongly feel many law & order or crime shows are based on real happenings in the world and as such, this show was very entertaining. Justin Cornwell did a good job with the role he played as well. Hope to see him in something very soon if this show is tossed out.

CBS is becoming known as a network that screws up a lot of scheduling on a regular basis. Getting tired of that aspect.

I have read some less than stellar reviews of this show but I watched the first three episodes nonetheless. The reviewers are correct in that the show does not pass up very many cop show clichés. LA setting, bad white guy black good guy, bad Russians, bad former military, nasty black woman in charge, smarmy lawyer, killer hot women, cop drives classic Detroit iron and on and on. You get the idea.

All that said, I will always give Jerry Bruckheimer produced shows a shot. He invented a genre with CSI and Top Gun remains little Tom Chruis' best movie. This one is beginning to grow on me.

Far of being racist, but why the political correctness to the extreme? What should have happened if the bad guy from the movie (Denzel) continued to be bad in the series? Black guys aren't allowed to be bad anymore on TV and on the screen? They're only introspective, serious, well behaved, naive but honest, well- meaning, understanding guys? Really? There are some great actors there, besides Denzel Washington, who may be very uppset about the limitatons imposed by the networks. It is a well known fact that the bad guy is the most complex character, and almost always the most less-forgettable. It's sad that politics dictate. The show is bad. Not because what i've wrote above, but because IT IS bad. Sorry for Paxton - it is his last project. I'm very curious what will become of the show now.