“The Good Cop” Offers Great Characters and Clever Humor

By ALLEN HILLS
Staff Writer

For those of you who are looking for a new and fun TV show to binge-watch after a long day, the new Netflix original series, “The Good Cop,” is my recommendation.

Released on Sept. 21, the show has failed to impress critics, but has greatly impressed viewers. While the show has a rating of 52 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a whopping audience score of 84 percent. I like to consider myself a part of that 84 percent. “The Good Cop” is an incredibly funny and pleasing TV show that is undoubtedly worth your time. The show stars Josh Groban and Tony Danza in one of the most unlikely, yet most effective, onscreen duos to date.

Yes, I do mean the famous singer Josh Groban, who is an occasional actor, and a good one at that, who takes great advantage of his first lead role. His character, Anthony “TJ” Caruso, is a homicide detective in Queens who is very straight-laced and by-the-book when it comes to his ethics both on the job and in his personal life. Groban provides an assertive kind of nerdiness and uneasiness towards the character that makes him incredibly catchy and lovable, especially when it comes to his attitude towards to the other lead. Danza plays TJ’s father, Anthony “Tony” Caruso Sr., a former, dirty cop on parole. The comedy of TJ trying to tame his father is a very original kind of humor, since Tony has the charming personality of a New York City Italian/American that will do anything for friends and family regardless of the rules.

That is in fact why the title is so clever. It does not explicitly label Tony as the “bad cop,” but instead solely labels T.J. as the “good cop,” which makes it funnier in your mind when you imagine the alternative. The elimination of the obvious is somehow cryptically hilarious. Overall, the chemistry between Groban and Danza works incredibly well, given the fact that Groban is mostly known as a musician (his new album, “Bridges,” was also released the same day as “The Good Cop”). It all goes to show how effectively surprising scripted entertainment can be. Danza is a great singer as well, and even provides some of his flawless crooning in a couple of episodes (in fact, he made an album back in 2002 called “The House I Live In,” which is streaming on Spotify along with “Bridges”). His singing goes very well with the show’s incredibly jazzy musical score, which is only fitting for its NYC setting.

Even though The Good Cop is undeniably great, its use of cliché murder-mystery storylines are sometimes predictable. However, these subplots are almost secondary and contain entertaining situations in which the characters are comically involved. Therefore, these predictable investigations are very charming, which is refreshing. It is very much like Brooklyn Nine-Nine in that way where the characters are the specific focus above everything else. When a TV show focuses on the characters, success is inevitable. The great characters and the clever humor are what make this show gold.

So, be sure to stream and binge-watch The Good Cop, because even though it contains a bad cop, Tony has “always got your back.”