Shades of Blue: Une flic entre deux feux

Jennifer Lopez is really donning the moniker "Jenny from the Block". Her acting works have gained mixed reception and Shades of Blue will continue that tradition. The leading actors give a presentable performance and the drama appears to be in working shape, however some of the police works are following frigid formula of crime drama, not to mention a couple of angles are shady and unconvincing.

Female leads in cop series admittedly look like models, for example leads of Castle or Quantico, which is not entirely a bad and might even be appealing, but it doesn't enhance the reliability aspect of the series. What Jennifer brings is the occasional moments where her character is approachable. At these times she can shed the celebrity persona and delves into the character, although there's still inconsistency in this regard.

Harlee Santos (Jennifer Lopez) is a single mother and corrupt cop who is also being chased by FBI. The character can be appealing as the movie plays out the family and camaraderie cards, but it often transitions into intentionally excessively independent woman stereotype or simply become too melodramatic. Fortunately, the supporting cast helps alleviate these few sloppy instances.

Ray Liotta as Wozniak, the patriarch in the police squad, this is a role he's comfortable with. He plays the crude mentor and protector who harbor secret vices presentably well. Warren Kole as Stahl, the FBI agent is charming in creepy kind of way. There's a solid foundation for character development here, although it's not without a lingering inkling that these are crime drama clichés. Furthermore, this translates into some of the police works that just look too outlandishly crafted.

The premise holds together sufficiently, "Shades of Blue" has a decent start and relatively suspenseful set-up. If it follows these core directions instead of trails from other shows, it should find some degree of success.

As momma always said,... when you tell the truth you can always repeat the same story since you don't have to remember any of the lies you may have otherwise told. In Shades of Blue you have an entire team of a police division involved in police corruption. The two lead characters on this corrupt police team are Harlee Santos played by super star Jennifer Lopez and Detective Matt Wozniak, played by Ray Liotta. Harlee plays a veteran cop who is also a single mom raising her 16 year old daughter. Her daughter Cristina Santos (played by Sarah Jeffery) who is a cellist prodigy requires a substantial financial contribution to enrol in a private school for music prodigies. This is the main reason that mom and police woman Harlee Santos is part of a corrupt team of police officers. The team leader is Detective Matt Wozniak, played superbly by the legendary crime genre star Ray Liotta. Ray Liotta is one of my guaranteed good performance actors. Just think of the starring role he had in the crime films Goodfellas, Identity, Cop Land and/or Narc which were all good performances by Ray.

With only the first episode televised at the time of my review it is a tad bit early to tell how the main characters roles will evolve, and if the television series writers will lean more in developing the main characters in the direction of a television crime series like The Shield, or more in mind with the strategic crime series and multiple Emmy winning series The Wire.

I will say though the director of the pilot series is the seasoned director and producer Barry Levinson who has ensured we understand that Harlee Santos is a very busy cop and mom. Within the first 60 minutes in no particular order, we witness Harlee run down and handcuff single handedly a very quick and agile street thug, set up an alibi for a rookie cop who kills a low life drug dealer without thinking first, deliberately smash her daughters car up to back up an alibi she created (remember what momma said about lies versus telling the truth?) earlier with Detective Matt Wozniak, gets caught by the FBI trying to take a bribe form a bookie (who is an FBI agent) and Harlee still finds time to work out in a boxing gym both in and out of the ring with her boy toy (no surprise here) trainer boyfriend. Whewww, Harlee accomplished all that in less than 60 minutes.

So now we see we have a team of corrupt cops trying to do their job of protecting the good citizens of New York City and at the same time make a few bucks off the backs of the bad guys by skimming a little kick back in protection money. We have the FBI closing in on this team of corrupt cops who are now under surveillance, and we have the corrupt team leader Matt Wozniak trying to figure out who the snitch is in his own unit before the FBI can close in on them all and break up this happy little family of close knit corrupt cops.

There is a lot going on in Shades Of Blue and I remain optimistic with this stellar cast of Grade 1 movie and television stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Ray Liotta, Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos), Warren Kole and Lolita Davidovich the series will have a strong first season performance. Mrs Shullivan and I were impressed with the pilot episode. So far I will give the series a positive 9 out of 10 rating for the stellar cast, and the excellent directing and cinematography of the series pilot.

One of the people reviewing on the board thought this was an original idea. She never saw The Shield, I guess.

Like Shades of Blue, The Shield was about a group of crooked cops, led by Michael Chiklis. Here, it's Ray Liotta as Matt Wozniak, working with a group made up of Harlee (J. Lo), Tess (Drea DeMatteo), Michael (Dayo Okenyi), Marcus (Hampton Fluker) and others.

Harlee is a single mother with a daughter (Cristina Santos). She is having some financial problems. She is approached by the FBI in the person of Robert Stahl (Warren Kole). She can cooperate and help them get Wozniak or she can go to prison given what they have on her. She reluctantly cooperates, but Wozniak is so paranoid and nervous, she has to be extra-careful. Plus she is torn because of her loyalty to Wozniak.

This isn't a bad show. I think people are hard on Jennifer Lopez and here's why: She's a high-profile celebrity who has a lot written about her personal life, she shows up to awards shows in some flimsy fashions, and she's a singer and dancer. When people look at her, they see Jennifer Lopez, diva.

None of that means that she can't act. I thought she was wonderful as Selena, and she's good in this.

The problem with the show is that because it's Jennifer Lopez, we constantly see her taking off her clothes, working out at the gym, having sex, showing cleavage and then being a tough-as-nails cop, all the while with perfect hair and make-up. And did I mention she's 46 years old. Also, all the guys want her. It's too much, and as a result, the show is criticized.

Lopez needs to lose herself in this role a little more and be a female cop and less dishy - a little less makeup, some unstyled hair, a few less love scenes and a few less times she strips down should do it. She would still be beautiful but a little more human. Then I think people might be more receptive.

The rest of the cast is very good -- Ray Liotta is terrific - he looks and is terrifying; Drea DeMatteo from "The Sopranos" is very believable as a policewoman with personal problems; Warren Kole seems young for his job but he's okay. A good cast has been assembled.

There's nothing wrong with being a derivative show - most shows are. For what it is, it's dark and pretty good.

I wasn't sure about this show when it first came out. I gave it a chance because it had Ray Liotta, albeit the plastic faced version, co-starring. Lopez steals the show. She is excellent in her role.

Sunday, 14 May 2017: I initially reviewed this show after watching the first few episodes and I realized what a great show it is. This is a great dirty cop drama that keeps getting better with each episode. Beautiful, sexy and talented Jennifer Lopez, but the Emmy and SAG awards goes to the brilliant actor, Ray Liotta. He is the powerhouse actor on the show. I like that Ray's character Woz does not blink an eye when he has to kill somebody who is more dirtier than he is.

I sure hope Ray gets an Emmy for best male actor in a drama series and the show itself win an Emmy. Watching Jenny Lopez, she is just a naturally sexy and beautiful Latina to watch.

The rest of the cast of actors/actresses fill out the show very well. I hope this show has a long successful run on television for many years. I hope they hurry up and get rid of mobster Bianchi and his crew.