Tommy (2020)

Smart, well-written and with an excellent cast, “Tommy” is a strong new series that offers a fresh and welcome take on the police procedural.

It’s no surprise that Falco presides over all of this with aplomb. She’s instantly believable, instantly real. You’ll root for her take-no-prisoners Tommy, be frustrated for her, question her decisions, and admire her decisiveness. She’s everything you need in a lead character. It helps that Falco is supported by a strong cast.

Lately, the broadcast drama has a hard time competing for attention with shinier objects in the pay and streaming universes. But operating within those parameters, Falco's leadership quickly vaults "Tommy" to near the top of its class.

An otherwise sparkling script drowns in backstory.

"Tommy" is quite intentionally a socially conscious construction, and while that's not necessarily to its detriment, its earnest approach to inclusion can at times get in the way of a viewer's ability to appreciate its worth as a solid character-driven procedural.

Edie Falco instantly elevates the role of Abigail "Tommy" Thomas, Los Angeles first female police chief, with emotional intelligence and sardonic wit. [3-16 Feb 2020, p.9]

Falco, of course, is the main reason to tune in, even as “Tommy” struggles to match her range, from serious empathy to dry wit. ... The other reason to watch — indeed, the show’s true potential — is Tommy’s unflappable approach to good community policing, on a network that for too long has fetishized grisly murders and the wonders of DNA results.

Where the show does best is in its treatment of Tommy’s private life. In depicting her tentative reconnection with her adult daughter (Olivia Lucy Phillip), a Angeleno-by-choice who left her work-crazed mom behind long ago, the show hits familiar beats nicely. ... A problem the show has yet to solve is that the kind of power she exercises when in uniform would tend to make her unknowable, and keeping her as open and big-hearted in every moment of the show’s running time defies belief.

Edie Falco is so talented that she can make this formulaic CBS cop drama watchable. She can't quite make it good, but she saves it from being bad.

It’s all a little too on-the-nose and predictable. Falco is fantastic as always, but the writing in early episodes lacks anything approaching the nuance and sophistication of Falco’s past series, “The Sopranos” and “Nurse Jackie.”

Edie Falco is one of those actors we’ll watch in anything. And Tommy certainly is anything.

Everything except Falco's performance lands rather dully. The writers fail to make the supporting cast nearly as compelling. Kate is inconsistent, sometimes flighty and hysterical, other times grounded and responsible, making her hard to pin down.

First-rate actress, compelling idea but neither can escape the clutches of a shopworn formula.

Although neatly episodic in one sense, “Tommy” also has a continuing subplot, the destination of which remains unclear but which makes the relationships among its characters amorphous and their intentions suspicious. The show could use better direction. But it certainly has a sinister undercurrent. ... It remains to be seen how well-suited Ms. Falco is to Tommy, or whether the dialogue gets any better.

Falco is just fine in the show, using touches of dry humor to charm even while we understand that Tommy is a flawed person. But, sadly, despite her chops, Falco is not asked to do a lot in the script except exude principles and rock a police uniform.