A remake of the 1967-1975 crime drama about a wheelchair-bound detective, this time from screenwriter Michael Caleo (whose big-screen credits include 2006’s “The Last Time” and this year’s “The Family”), “Ironside” stars Blair Underwood as the wheelchair-bound detective originated by Raymond Burr.
Brace yourself for the old dangling the suspect over the rooftop trope! And the slightly newer shoot-the-hostage gag! The handsome Blair Underwood turns out to be well-preserved for a man of 49, but the new “Ironside” pilot isn’t even as interesting as “Low Winter Sun.”
... Despite a committed, angry performance from Underwood, and a very good one from Brent Sexton as Ironside's grief-stricken ex-partner, a lot of the show plays like a parody of hard-boiled cop show cliches. …
... Not that this show’s irksomeness is Mr. Underwood’s fault. The writers, at least in the pilot, have a thuddingly didactic approach to Ironside’s disability, one that is not doing real people with disabilities any favors. Their starting point seems to have been that no one in the viewing audience has ever seen a person in a wheelchair. They have drawn up a list of misconceptions this nonexistent viewer might have and set about dutifully puncturing them in one clumsy scene after another. …
... Apart from Underwood, who has class-A TV-star appeal, the show is nothing special. No worse than or much different from your average character-driven cop show. …
... While it’s better than getting stung by a bee, I’d rather watch fingernails dry. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Other than the fact that Bob Ironside is in a wheelchair, the new version is a fairly standard police procedural. …
... There’s an interesting psychological drama to explore here, if “Ironside’s” writers and its seasoned cast can resist the easy, repetitive lure of cop-show pro-forma. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... The relationship between Ironside and his ex-partner is somewhat interesting but everything else in “Ironside” is a well-worn cop show cliché, from Ironside’s tough guy routine to the dialogue. …
... just another stock network crime procedural that feels like all the other stock network procedurals that crowd network primetime. …
... Given that built-in lack of interest, any revival at all would seem to make little sense. An atrociously clunky one that keeps only the rough outline — a wounded detective confined to a wheelchair — while jettisoning whatever wit and intelligence the original possessed makes no sense at all. But then, when has that ever stopped TV? …
... this by-the-numbers crime procedural never gets rolling. There’s a disability at work here, all right, but it has nothing to do with the show’s wheelchair-bound hero. …
10 p.m. Wednesday. NBC.
