Early Look: 'Memphis Beat' - Quirky Cop Overwhelms Standard Cop Drama

It's been a couple of days since I saw the pilot of 'Memphis Beat,' and I'm still trying to figure out what the show wants to be. Does it want to be a gritty exploration of the criminal underbelly of Memphis, a city mostly known for its music, barbecue and easygoing Southern pace? Does it want to be a character study of a cop, Dwight Hendricks (Jason Lee), who's a bit on edge since his divorce and does things his own way? Or does it want to be a straight-ahead procedural?

Once the show figures out what it wants to be -- and I have some thoughts on what it should be -- it might prove to be successful in the drama-laden TNT lineup (the show premieres Tuesday, June 22 at 10PM ET). Until then, though, the show has the potential to painfully lurch around in search of that identity.

One thing that creators Liz W. Garcia and Joshua Harto have been able to capture in this show is how much music -- namely the blues and early rock 'n' roll -- informs the zeitgeist of a city like Memphis, in both the show's soundtrack and in its main character. Hendricks sings blues, rockabilly and early Elvis songs in a smoky club when he's not using his intimate knowledge of his hometown to crack cases.

In the pilot, for instance, he follows the trail of evidence after discovering that one of his favorite DJs from his childhood is being abused in her old age. Hendricks sometimes takes the pursuit too personally, acting as if someone attacked his beloved mother (Celia Weston). But his instincts are always right, according to his partner, who goes by the affectionate nickname Whitehead (Sam Hennings). Of course, Hendricks' new boss, Lt. Tanya Rice (Alfre Woodard). doesn't much like this quirky style of detective work, and tries hard to get Hendricks to a) relax and b) work more by the book.



There's something in this relationship that seems to go beyond the standard of just the renegade cop and the lieutenant that's supposed to rein him in. We discover in the pilot that they have more in common than we first realize and we also find out that there's a reasoning behind her hard line. Woodard, of course, usually infuses even the most stock characters with layers that probably aren't there on the page, but there's potential here that hopefully will be explored.

And, right now, I'm just not sold on Lee as Hendricks. There's supposed to be a seething intensity to the character that's underneath the easygoing Southern manner, and Lee didn't do a great job of displaying it in the pilot; he seemed more crazy than tortured. And, coming so soon off 'My Name Is Earl,' Lee doing another Southern character is disconcerting; it's Earl's voice, with the same slackerish facade, just with a bit more anger and less facial hair. Because of this, Lee is going to have to work harder to distance Hendricks from Earl Hickey.

I might not have worried about all that if the case was a bit more interesting. But there weren't enough twists and turns in the mystery to make it all that interesting. Cop dramas that are character driven tend to have this problem at the beginning, until they hit on an ongoing case that can hold its own against the show's ongoing quirkiness. Think about the Red John chase on 'The Mentalist' or the vast conspiracy against Det. Crews on the much-missed 'Life'; until those stories were crystalized, episodes concentrated mainly on the main characters' tics to the point of fatigue.

Luckily, 'Memphis Beat' is on TNT, which usually gives shows time to find their footing. And having George Clooney's production company behind the show can't hurt its chances. If the show can find some equilibrium between the procedural and the quirky, the show might have a shot. Right now, though, it's a bit of a mess.