Shades of Blue - Good Police - Review: Dirty Vs. Dirty

You can’t always be sprinting.

Welcome to the beginning of the end of what was one of the biggest surprises in cop shows in a while. As I'm sure you know this will be the last season of this thrilling show and though I'm not even close to getting tired of it, anyone who's had a show they loved cancelled with no proper conclusion knows it's sometimes better to have one less season if it means getting closure for the story. Especially since nowadays old shows continue to be binged and a cliffhanger show is at the very least a lot less bingeable.

Now, I have no idea why it took six episodes in season one to get hooked but from then on it became one of my favorite shows, and now I have to say it's one of the best-written shows on my schedule, and this season is taking all that to the next level from the very first moment, not only with the marvelous dialogue and performances but also every single story seems so well thought out, they're are all so good, and so relevant to the core of the show, like Harlee's mental unraveling, the fight with the intelligence unit and the different references to everything they've gone through, nothing seems left to chance this season and it only gives me hope for a satisfying conclusion and with that a gem of a show I will certainly be rewatching sooner or later (and probably getting other people to watch as well).

We begin with a flashforward three weeks ahead of where this season picks up of Harlee testifying against corrupt cops, and though the first thing to come to mind is her crew I think it would make sense if the crew in question was Ramsay's. We can see Espada and Loman are there, as is Verco and Woz's son which I'm very happy about though it remains to be seen where they fit in. Now the fact that Woz, Tess, and Tufo are missing from that scene could mean a lot of things, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were all either dead or in jail. It does looks like Harlee is indeed in some trouble, she might have made a deal but we don't know how good it could be, though my guess is she won't be doing jail time, but the interrogation was a very interesting and intense scene.

Pick a day.

It also looks like Harlee's mental unraveling will be hipnotic to watch, she'll probably be better soon but for now I'm enjoying the full force of the acting chops I didn't know J-Lo had. She's been clearly obsessing over Stahl, and why he saved her life, though I don't think she should be surprised, I mean it was clear he was crazy about her (quite literaly) and he didn't want her to die. But still it's a very intereesting turn for Harlee, seeing him everywhere, listening to his 911 call over and over, she can't seem to get Stahl out of her head, and both having being reinstated too soon and knowing he's at large can't help. I'm sure he'll show up at some point, or at least I hope so if they intend to give us some closure on that. And though Nava tries to help, it's clear anything shot of Stahl's death just won't do.

My mind is too loud.
Maybe it wants an audience.

This season seems like it's all about redemption, or the idea of it, but perhaps only for Harlee, clearly Woz has zero interest in that, and if this season doesn't end up with Woz dead or in jail at some point I would be surprised. As for the rest of the crew, I don't know about the new integrant of the family, but I don't see a way out for any of them and it looks like they're not all that interested in going straight anyway. And Woz makes that very clear, not only with his obsession with getting the crew back together but also because it wants all to be the same as before and here is where one of the best scenes in the episode comes in when he and Harlee talk about how differenty they're taking their new chance at life, and they both killed it here, especially J-Lo, she truly knoecked it out of the park.

You can’t stand where you’re standing and pretend it’s high-ground
I’m not standing Woz, okay? I’m under water, I can’t breathe, I can’t even reach the surface.
Then let me make the decisions until you figure out which way is up.

Speaking of not going straight, it seems this season's big bad is no other than Woz's counterpart in the intelligence office, or maybe what Woz would look like in a few years, and that makes this whole season just that much better, not only because the big bad offers so many nuances but because there are so many reflections to Woz and the crew, between him and Ramsay, and also between Cole and Harlee being the ones that seemingly are in over the heads and want out but don't know exactly how to go about it. And when Harlee and Woz discuss the unit and she's sayign they are terrible becaus ethey killed one of their own, Woz's response killed me, there's nothing new here but "so did we" hit me like a ton of bricks, as it looks like it did Harlee, sometimes I forget how much I hate Woz, and yet I love him, but damn what he did to Sap is truly unforgivable.

Does the favor have a name?

As for Cole, I have to say I'm really enjoying having him around, I've loved Nick Wechsler on Revenge and though it remains to be seen how good his acting chops are I just like him and I think he adds a lot to the story and might be a pretty big game changer later on, I think he and Harlee will get together at some point, or at least want to, but I might be wrong, of course. Also very interesting, was the call back to the Pilot, this time it was Loman the one who got Harlee out of trouble almost in the same way she did in the beginning, and it was nice to see her recognize her role in taking his choice from him about the kind of cop he wanted to be.

And last but not least, I want to talk about that heartbreaking ending. As soon as Harlee involved Nava in the whole mess I knew his death sentence was signed, and though it was sad, especially because he was one of the few really good people on the show, I can't say I was surprised, in Harlee's world happy can't last, and that made so much sense when I saw her crying over his body it made me instantly be okay with it; because it fits perfectly, because there's no better motivation for what will happen next and because I knew Nava wasn't it, Harlee would've never been able to truly escape the grey in her life enough to be at peace with him, which is not the case with Cole, now Harlee doesn't have to end up with someone, that's not what this story is about, but if she does, I do think Cole is actually a good fit.

I’ll stand alone

What did you think of the premiere? What are your expectations for this season? Let me know in the comments.