The Good Guys

While it is quite silly, it's silly in a clever and engaging way, which is the signature style of its creator, Matt Nix.

Count me in. Nix knows you can't play the old cliches straight, so each shootout and car chase--and there's plenty of mayhem in the fast-paced pilot--is infused with an "oh, c'mon" over-the-top goofiness.

Together [Whitford and Hanks], well, they're just silly and in a way that made me feel a lot happier than anything on "24" has made me feel in a long, long time

Although "The Good Guys" might sound like the sort of cliché-heavy dramedy unlikely to hold our attention for more than a few milliseconds, the show pushes its formula just past zany and lands in the far more appealing territory of downright absurd.

As straight man and wild card combos go, Hanks and Whitford are well-matched, though "The Good Guys" really belongs to Whitford. He appears to be having so much fun that it's simply infectious.

Good Guys isn't a perfect construct, but it's a well-executed one--albeit more a breezy, busy diversion than appointment TV, placing greater reliance on guests than its limited supporting cast to prop up the principals.

Nix has more than proved that he knows how to wed comedy, action, satire and real character development, so though the pilot flags here and droops there, "The Good Guys" will no doubt pick up speed as everyone settles more comfortably into the idea that there are no sacred cows, not even the buddy flick.

The Good Guys, true to its genre, presents an opposition between order and anarchy and asks the audience to embrace the apparently crazy cop who, in the tradition of American pragmatism, cuts through the red tape to get things done.

The show is a series of rapid-fire everything: gunfights, car chases and witticisms. The device of jumping backward and forward in time provides a jarring sense of raucous suspense while also keeping things light, and there's no lack of tossed-off lines and information handed out like candy.

Whitford's Stark is a '70s throwback who looks like he stepped out of a rerun of Mannix, and Hanks' Bailey is his prim foil. The pilot huffs and puffs for laughs the way Stark chases perps, but it could settle into a comfy cop series.

As a quirky cross between Reynolds' Gator McKlusky and John Cazale's Fredo Corleone, Whitford pretty much hijacks the show. He's fun to watch, even if the show will knock your IQ down a few points.

Whitford inhabits his role with the laid-back, reassuring ease of a true television professional--a fine actor working at top speed. Hanks is a bit of a harder sell. You get the feeling you're supposed to notice and appreciate every trick of the actor's trade, but there's potential in the performance, assuming Hanks is willing and able to relax into it.

Fox's newest buddy series relies too much on the '70's-style moustache of detective Dan Stark (Bradley Whitford) and too little on the chemistry he has (or doesn't) with his partner, Jack Bailey (Colin Hanks). Not that this is a bad thing, since the moustache is a better character than either of the above.

"The Good Guys" isn't really good but it is OK if all you seek from TV is bland, comfortable entertainment--the same type of program you were watching 30 years ago.

The humor is madcap and inane where it should be wry, and the characters are stubbornly predictable. The editing of the show is swift and bouncy, as it is on "Burn Notice,'' but still the hour drags. It's just not much fun.

They might have to lose some of the cartoon-cop humor to get there. Whether they do may determine whether Dan and Jack end up as a short, forgettable joke or a couple of cops we care about.

When it doesn't bore you, it provokes you to think, "Boy, is this dumb."

The first episode is a sometimes energetic effort to rediscover some of that ol' mullety magic, but it's also got the clumsy problems of all pilots, including a tendency to overstate its premise.