Going under

From left to right, Nikki Aycox, Logan Marshall-Green and Dylan McDermott star as undercover cops in "Dark Blue," which premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday.

By: Casey Gillis | The Burg
Published: July 14, 2009

There are two things you should know about Lt. Carter Shaw, who runs the deep undercover unit at the center of TNT’s newest drama, “Dark Blue.”

“There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to protect us, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to get his man,” Ty Curtis (Omari Hardwick), a longtime member of Shaw’s team, tells their newest recruit.

What could be wrong with that, the newbie wonders.

“Sometimes,” Ty says, “you don’t know which comes first.”

As Shaw, Dylan McDermott (“The Practice”) sports the obligatory five o’clock shadow that has become a calling card for washed-up cops. He’s tough on his team and even tougher on other law enforcement personnel who get in his way, whether they be fellow LAPD officers or FBI agents.

During his 18-year police career, he’s worked everything from vice to homicide and has a long list of high-profile busts.

“He should have a penitentiary named after him,” one FBI agent says upon discovering Shaw’s credentials.

Instead, he is listed as an “administrative liaison” to the LAPD, which is apparently his own cover for the secret operation. You see, Shaw’s team is so covert that many of their fellow officers don’t even know it exists.

The pilot episode, which airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday, introduces us to Shaw’s crew, which also includes newbie Jaimie Allen (Nicki Aycox), a former beat cop with a shady past, and loose cannon Dean Bendis (Logan Marshall-Green), whom the team suspects has flipped and really is working for the criminals involved in their latest investigation.

“How long can you pretend to be something before you become it?” Ty says while explaining the job to Jaimie.

The first episode is full of cheesy lines like that. Another sample: “There’s going under, and there’s stepping over,” Shaw says. “I get scared when I don’t know the difference.”

That said, anyone who watched “The Practice” knows McDermott is a good leading man.

Here, he’s surrounded by another good cast, with Marshall-Green as the definite standout.

At times, he reminded me of a young Brad Pitt, but I’m pretty sure I recently said the same thing about Travis Fimmel, Patrick Swayze’s costar in A&E’s similarly themed “The Beast.”

It’s possible I’m just over-anxious to anoint the second coming of Mr. Pitt, or maybe it’s becoming a trend among up-and-coming actors. You decide.

The only cast member who didn’t really work was Aycox as supposed tough girl Jaimie, which was surprising because I’ve liked her in other shows, namely “Supernatural.” Here, though, I just wasn’t buying what she was selling.

Despite the charms of McDermott and Marshall-Green, “Dark Blue,” all gloomy, dark atmospherics and cheesy dialogue, is nothing new.