‘Good Cop/Bad Cop' review: A brother and sister become police partners, with dad as their boss

Chicago Tribune

19-02-2025

Television shows anchored by odd-couple sleuths usually pair a man and a woman whose light bickering is a mask for the sexual tension between them. So what happens when the duo are siblings instead, as they are on the CW's 'Good Cop/Bad Cop'? Absent the flirtating and sublimated urges: No spark, no fire.
The latest addition to the network's bouncy case-of-the-week output (which also includes Canadian import 'Wild Cards'), 'Good Cop/Bad Cop' takes place in the Pacific Northwest where a detective named Lou (Leighton Meester) is surrounded by barely competent co-workers. Everyone knows everyone in their small town, which comes in handy during interrogations, but Lou thinks this is a waste of her talents: 'I'm sick of having to play the 'I'll tell your mom' card.'
So the police chief, who is also her dad, decides to change things up and give her a partner, pairing Lou with her rigid, socially robotic younger brother Henry (Luke Cook), who is fresh out of the police academy. There's your premise: Sibling banter and quirky cases. (The show is a co-production between multiple entities including an Australian streaming service, which is why, despite the setting, it was filmed not in the U.S. or even Vancouver, but in Queensland.)
Lou and Henry get on each other's nerves because their personalities are so different. He was likely the kid in class who reminded the teacher to give homework and she was probably the kid who rolled her eyes in response. But if she's the more outwardly 'normal' one, it's only because she's better at hiding her idiosyncrasies. They are professionally incompatible — he's a foot taller than her, which visually underscores their inability to see eye-to-eye — and the running joke is that even as adults on the job, they still bicker like children. When they disagree, she offers him a wager: 'If I'm right, then I get to punch you as hard as I can.' And if I'm right, he asks? 'Then you don't get punched.' Dad (Clancy Brown) is a good ol' boy type and thinks it's a fine idea to turn his police department into a family business, because this is a version of policing where everyone is kindly and goodhearted and why let nepotism get in the way of a taxpayer-funded family reunion?
I like what creator John Quaintance is aiming for, even if I would have preferred a format besides yet more copaganda. (Couldn't this have been a family of private eyes instead?!) We need upbeat, easy-to-watch dramedies that follow an episodic template and I really wanted to like this one.
The series is pleasant enough, but there's also a flatness to it because it lacks a compelling binding agent underneath Lou and Henry's mutual annoyance. Other shows rely on a 'just kiss already!' energy to do a lot of that work. Not an option here, which is fine, but Quaintance hasn't figured out a suitable replacement. Friction doesn't automatically generate chemistry.
'Good Cop/Bad Cop' — 2 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: 8 p.m. Wednesdays on The CW