The first TV series created by screenwriter Adi Hasak, “Shades of Blue” stars American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez as a single-mother Brooklyn detective named Harley forced by the FBI to spy on her fellow corrupt cops.
Will it attact a more loyal audience, I wonder, than Greg Berlanti’s super-low-rated “Mysteries of Laura,” also an NBC hourlong about about a tough single-mother New York police detective?
Hasak’s big-screen work includes 1997’s Charlie Sheen thriller “Shadow Conspiracy” (which received an extraordinary 0% positive reviews – none! – from critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes) 2010’s “From Paris With Love” (37%) and 2014’s “3 Days to Kill” (28%).
... a watered-down network version of "The Shield” … competent but uninspired …
... It has the occasional police chase, shooting and so on, because even dirty cops have to enforce the law now and again. But it’s about gray-area choices, not about catching perps. Ms. Lopez and Mr. Liotta pair well, and the early episodes certainly have a pulse. The key will be how long the conceit holds up; in real life, the F.B.I.’s traps have to be sprung eventually. …
... too often hopes narrative complication will pass for psychological complexity. … It all happens remarkably fast, with Hasak obviously hoping that the plot's twist and turns will distract from its obvious holes. …
... “Shades of Blue” certainly isn’t shy about hauling out some of the tropiest tropes about cops who find themselves wearing a wire. Still, there’s something compelling and worth watching here — mainly Lopez’s enthusiastic and determined performance. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... There are moments when "Shades of Blue" feels like more than the sum of its recycled parts but then there's a manipulative, tension-filled scene that tacks in just the direction a savvy viewer could predict. Also, when JLo gets into a boxing ring with a guy and the match turns into a sexual rendezvous, it inspires too much eyerolling to be taken seriously.…
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... On and on Hasak and his writers go, adding one improbable moment after another until the entire plot is like a precarious Jenga construct. Fortunately, Lopez is around to keep the thing from entirely toppling. She not only makes the declamatory dialogue credible, her presence is so convincing and magnetic that every other misstep can be overlooked and “Shades of Blue” comes off as better than it really is. …
... It aims to be a portrait of messy lives on the messy streets of a messy city in a messy world. But that effort to be realistic, to portray weariness, stress, and compromise on the job, apparently doesn’t extend to hair and makeup. It also doesn’t extend to story logic, which gets as tangled and mucked up by episode two as Lopez’s hair doesn’t. …
... Barry Levinson (“Rain Man”) directed the first two episodes, and they are unusually taut. …
... a thoroughly ordinary reworking of pretty much every crooked cop show and movie you’ve ever seen. …
the focus on Harlee remains front and center, with the actress acquitting herself honorably enough as a character who is tough and resourceful but, as written, relatively thin and uninspired. ... it’s too bad “Blue” couldn’t bring at least a few new, more colorful hues to a crime drama that paints, ultimately, with a rather familiar palette. …
... as a whole, not a very good show. Still, it's at least a bad show in a way that's compatible with a lot of Lopez's bad movies, so it should satisfy its intended audience. …
10 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
