Don't you mean the virgin Connie Swail?
“Law & Order” mastermind Dick Wolf revives the old Jack Webb cop drama, but is it closer to “Dragnet” or “Law & Order”? Sounds like the names Friday and Smith were the only things that weren’t changed (to protect the innocent or anyone else).
The original plan was to go young, with 40-year-old Danny Huston (“Ivans XTC”) as detective Joe Friday and 24-year-old Ethan Embry (“Freakylinks,” “Sweet Home Alabama”) as partner Frank Smith. But Huston vacated, and the Friday role went to “Married With Children” star Ed O’Neill, 57, who co-starred with a 13-year-old Embry (then known as “Ethan Randall”) in the 1991 John Hughes-scripted road comedy “Dutch.”
10 p.m. Sunday. ABC.
USA Today gives it two stars (out of four) and says:
10 p.m. Sunday. ABC.
USA Today gives it two stars (out of four) and says:
“What's in a name? In the case of Dragnet, not much. … restraint is the last thing you'll find in this Dragnet, with its crude jokes about premature ejaculation and its willingness to grab an audience by ramping up the level of sick violence inflicted on women. … In essence, what you don't get from Dragnet is Dragnet, which might not matter much to the younger viewers ABC so desperately craves. Instead, you're getting another twist on the already overly familiar Law formula, an efficient enough TV series, perhaps, but one without much imagination. … Where Dragnet moves perfunctorily from plot twist to plot twist, Boomtown explores the emotional and social impact of the crime.”
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B+” and says:
… from the updated version of the show's immortal theme song to its amped-up, titillating plotlines, the new ''Dragnet'' moves to a faster beat. … To his credit, O'Neill doesn't attempt to imitate Webb, like Dan Aykroyd did in the underrated 1987 big-screen spoof; instead, he captures Friday's low-key spirit, and his admirably restrained performance feels like penance for his many years of mugging as ''Married'''s vulgarian dad, Al Bundy. … Maybe Wolf should've also replaced Embry, who doesn't make such a credible cop. Sporting grown-up sideburns, he still seems like the pubescent twerp of ''Can't Hardly Wait'' and ''That Thing You Do!'' The writers try to address his youth by having Friday confess, ''How you ever became a detective this young is still a mystery to me.'' But that doesn't resolve the mystery: How did he ever become a detective this young? With no explanation, his scenes play like ''Doogie Howser, LAPD.'' … Even as Wolf's staff of scribes revamp ''Dragnet'' for the age of DNA and PDAs, its primary virtue remains refreshingly old-fashioned: solid, well-crafted plots. Friday's investigations stand as expertly constructed examples of classic A-leads-to-B-leads-to-C storytelling. Unlike such new-wave crime dramas as NBC's ''Boomtown'' and FX's ''The Shield,'' ''Dragnet'' doesn't reinvent the TV-cop wheel, but it does offer a satisfying hour of throwback entertainment.
The Los Angeles Times says:
“So here's the question: Why remake ‘Dragnet’ if it's not going to be ‘Dragnet,’ with a Friday who is Friday? Why redo it if not to camp it up and rouge it bright pink mostly for laughs? Minus the old show's tailored-for-ridicule tics, which are now part of TV lore, the 2003 version of ‘Dragnet’ becomes just another generic cop series set in L.A. Unexciting and unnecessary.”
The Hollywood Reporter says:
“Exec producer Wolf has in mind a ‘reconceptualization,’ a way of bringing the classic cop show into the 21st century. Writer Tyler Bensinger found an engaging story about a twisted serial killer. Then he changed the names to protect the innocent. Friday still narrates the open and sets up some key scenes. But there's a lot less narration here than in the original. Also, remember that documentary style? There's less of that, too. … One problem has no solution. In the original series, Friday showed no emotion and betrayed no personality. Zero. He went from witness to witness and suspect to suspect with barely a twitch of a facial muscle. O'Neill is asked to do pretty much the same thing. Problem is, O'Neill knows how to act. If he could escape this dialogue straitjacket, there's no telling how interesting he could make this character.”
Variety says:
“Ed O'Neill brings such an encouraging force and personality to his depiction of an LAPD detective in the latest version of ‘Dragnet’ that forgiveness is in store for anyone who thinks the names of Jack Webb and Joe Friday have been sullied by Dick Wolf's update of the mid-1960s classic. Wolf keeps the name of Friday; an echo of the dum-da-dum-dum theme; trial results in the coda; and the intro that specifies the day, weather, division and precinct. Everything else associated with the classic show is cast aside. It's gritty in the manner of ‘Law & Order: SVU’ it does deserve asking: If two cops patrol L.A., is it ‘Adam-12’? If two working-class married couples live in the same apartment site, is it ‘The Honeymooners’? If a politician has a daughter, is it ‘The Governor and J.J.’? ‘Dragnet’ became perennially cool through its stiff acting, great theme song, banal plots and the lack of Miranda rights. This ‘Dragnet’ needs a different name.”
