Battle Creek - Pilot - Advance Preview: "The Battle Creek Way"

Premiering Sunday, March 1 at 10/9c on CBS is the new drama Battle Creek from 'Breaking Bad' creator Vince Gilligan and 'House' creator David Shore. It will be among the three midseason dramas premiering on Sundays, with the other two being ABC's Secrets and Lies (also premiering March 1) and NBC's Odyssey (premiering April 5). I'll write a preview for the other two as well, so be sure to check them out when published. For now, it's the CBS procedural that gets the attention. The pilot, officially titled "The Battle Creek Way", is a great start to the series.

The episode starts in the titular Battle Creek, Michigan, which is the setting of the series. We start in the middle of some drug dealer case, and it becomes clear that the Battle Creek police is not exactly well equipped to handle the case. In fact, the police department is understaffed and underfunded, and their equipment is substandard and out of date. Therefore, Detective Russ Agnew (Dean Winters) tells his boss, Commander Guziewicz (Janet McTeer), that they need the latest training and new equipment. Fortunately, she tells Russ they are getting help in the form of FBI Agent Milton 'Milt' Chamberlain (Josh Duhamel). From that moment on, Milt and Russ are partners.

And that leads to some hilarious moments. Because you see, Milt and Russ don't exactly agree with each other's methods. Milt brings along some pretty high-tech stuff to help in the case, but Russ thinks the old-fashioned way, "The Battle Creek Way", works as well. Milt is a good-looking guy and has quite some charisma, but is also a tad naive. Russ on the other hand knows Battle Creek all too well and believes it takes guile and toughness to solve crimes in the city. For example, there is a moment where they disagree on how to deal with a suspect. Needless to say, it leads to quite some conflict between the two men, but they also realize that they can learn quite a few things from one another.

The case of the pilot involves a double homicide. While the case is a pretty interesting one, there isn't too much focus on it. Instead, as most pilots do, the episode focusses on introducing us to the characters. Besides Russ, Milt and Commander Guziewicz, also part of the police department are Holly Dale (Aubrey Dollar), who has an interest in Russ and supports him very much, Fontanelle White (Kal Penn), who works with Russ at the beginning of the episode, and Aaron Funkhauser (Edward Fordham, Jr.). Liza Lapira also recurs as Detective Erin Jacocks. While we don't learn a lot about the supporting characters just yet, there are some nice team moments throughout the episode. I am sure we will see and learn more of them throughout the series. There is also a possible reference in the episode to Milt's past, which made me interested.

The pilot is pretty funny and has many great one-liners. While there are a few intense moments, 'Battle Creek' looks to be a bit of a lighter procedural. That makes it a perfect addition to my schedule which includes some pretty dark dramas. The center of the show is really the conflicting world views between Russ and Milt, and I must say that Dean Winters and Josh Duhamel were pretty great and have quite the chemistry. I have heard some complaints about the promos for the show, and while I haven't seen all of them, I don't think they do the show justice. The show has a lot of potential and I'd advise you to check it out if you are interested even if the promos turn you off.

All in all, Battle Creek has a lot going for it and I think it is better in quality than CBS' other midseason drama, 'CSI: Cyber'. CBS this fall successfully launched Sunday 8 pm drama 'Madam Secretary', which has been renewed for a second season. Sadly, 'Battle Creek' is scheduled in the lower-viewed 10 pm hour and seems a bit incompatible with 'Madam Secretary' and 9 pm drama 'The Good Wife'. So while the time slot is far from ideal, if word of mouth spreads about this great drama, it can do pretty reasonable in its time slot.

Thanks for reading my preview! Let me know in the comment section how you like the looks of this show and if you will check it out! Below is a promo for the show. You can find more photos and promos under the label Battle Creek on the site.

About the Author - Daniel van der Veer

Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Stalker, Madam Secretary and the upcoming shows Battle Creek and Odyssey. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder.

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