Stop me if you heard this one before — a man who doesn’t play by the rules of the system will use his rough around the edges approach to bring the system back to its purest form, all while ruffling a lot of feathers.
Every single TV season we see multiple shows that fit this description. Recently, we’ve seen it with medical dramas like The Resident and New Amsterdam, and historically we’ve seen it in procedurals dating back decades.
This is, in essence, the premise of the new FOX procedural Deputy.
Grizzled Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Bill Hollister (Stephen Dorff) is just about to get the boot from the department due to his tipping off a neighborhood of immigrants about an ICE raid. But wouldn’t you know it? His boss ends up dying, and a janky 150+ year old statute is executed — the sheriff’s longest serving deputy is to take his place until the people can properly vote for a new sheriff.
From there we get a fish-out-of-water story mixed in with your “I don’t play by the rules” arc for the entire premiere. We meet Hollister’s team/family – his no-nonsense surgeon wife (Yara Martinez), the combat vet turned cop with a scarred past (Brian Van Holt) and his, as of yet, undefined partner (Siena Goines), the son of his late partner (Shane Paul McGhie) and Hollister’s tough as nails lesbian assistant/bodyguard (Bex Taylor-Klaus). We get our first case — the fallout of a violent bank robbery that turns into a kidnapping, and we meet Hollister’s political nemesis (Mad Men’s Mark Moses in his usual bad guy role).
On paper this should all just be another vanilla procedural that fades into the television ether faster than you can see Lethal Weapon. And in all honesty, it really is. The supporting characters are paper thin. The story is wildly far-fetched yet painfully familiar. The “bad guy of the week” plot is rushed. The politics is so heavy-handed.
At the end of the day, you should be able to easily dismiss Deputy and just move right along.
…but, then there’s Stephen Dorff.
Dorff is the straw that stirs the drink for this entire series (and yes I know I overuse that phrase). He channels the same leathern, grizzled, long-drawled energy that made him so terrific in True Detective Season 3. There’s a smoldering intensity to his character — and this intensity isn’t some sort of macho bravado fueled by bullets and banter. His portrayal of Hollister is fully formed, and utterly lived in. With just hints of his past, Dorff is able to convince us that Hollister is a loving husband, a dorky overprotective dad, a man haunted by the death of his best friend,and someone who, despite not wanting to be in charge, is still willing to adhere to an old, pure code to ensure the safety of his people. Oh, and he does like his bullets and banter as well. Sure, the character is a little too perfect — but for a premiere episode that’s forgivable.
Is Deputy a can’t miss series? No, it’s not. Would it work better if the gloves were taken off and it ran on a streaming service, or premium channel like HBO? Absolutely. But, for a network series this is content that is way better than the bar that’s been set by the mind-numbing cop shows that have dominated the Big 4 for decades.
