On Call

Everything is very taut if superficial. Among its draws is that Dick Wolf is an executive producer of the show. .... The abbreviated running time for “On Call” works mostly to its advantage, the current sweeping you along without time to get too distracted by, say, Lori Loughlin playing a lieutenant. This also helps the show feel less formulaic than it truly is, its rhythms less predictable.

Overall, On Call has its merits, especially when it comes to the portrayal of Harmon and Diaz's partnership. The main characters anchor this procedural, which doesn't answer all the questions that it lays out from the pilot onward. Yet the tension between Harmon and her colleagues isn't explored enough, and neither is Harmon's drive to seek justice for Delgado.

It doesn’t break new ground. It’s akin to “Dragnet” — nothing but the facts — or the original “Hawaii Five-0” or “Adam-12.” The real weakness is the characters’ softness and lack of complexity.

In locking its characters and, in turn, its audience within this specific patrolling time, the drama doesn’t reach its full potential. Instead of offering a compelling viewpoint, the series is stressful and often mechanical. Viewers are never let off the job, so there is limited motivation to clock in for the next episode.

On Call’s unwillingness to engage too deeply with anything we’re seeing onscreen makes it hard to ever become totally engrossed by it. But then, not every show wants you to look that closely. Some are content humming along as background noise.

Amazon Prime’s “On Call,” the latest drama from executive producer Dick Wolf, is so intent on selling audiences on the idea that police are unfairly maligned and in danger every moment, of every day, that it forgets to tell a coherent or even fitfully entertaining story.

It’s clear that On Call wants to pay tribute to the complexity of this profession, without falling victim to either pure copaganda or abolish-the-police sermonizing. But the changes it makes from familiar formulas are almost insultingly cosmetic, and the serialized portion of its storyline is soapy and cartoonish.

Undercooked. .... Harmon and Diaz traffic in tropes so clichéd even Michael Bay would balk at the writing.