Episode Title: "That's All Right, Mama"
Writers: Liz W. Garcia & Joshua Harto
Director: John Fortenberry
Story:
In the teaser, we meet Detective Dwight Hendricks (Jason Lee) as he arrives at a grizzly murder scene in a liquor store. He soon realizes that a younger office named Davey Sutton (DJ Qualls) has accidentally contaminated the crime scene and that the killer is still in the store. Dwight works out the killer's hiding spot and forces the perp out of his hole, who loses his pants in the process. The assembled cops laugh as the clueless Davey frisks the half-naked killer.
Later we meet Lt. Tanya Rice (Alfre Woodard), Dwight's new boss who wants to make their police force more efficient and by-the-book. Dwight protests her initial assignment for him — questioning a lost old woman who appears to be unable to speak — until he discovers that she is Dotty Collins, a legendary Memphis disk jockey who has apparently suffered horrible abuse. He soon discovers that she has been a virtual prisoner in her own home, where she was tortured as well. Dwight tracks down her caretaker, a recovering addict named Sabine (Darcel White Moreno), who is quickly run down by a red car in a hit and run.
Dwight meets Doddy's son Patrick (Christopher Stanley) and practically threatens to throw him off the roof of the police station for allowing Dotty to be abused. While interviewing an eight year old witness, Dwight learns that Patrick was Sabine's lover and the witness saw him hide the red car. Dwight follows her lead and finds the car in question before bringing Patrick in for an interrogation. Lt. Rice continually rides Dwight and orders him to let Patrick go. She also threatens to fire Dwight if he persists in investigating on his own.
Instead of backing down, Dwight breaks into Dotty's house and discovers a hidden body that belongs to her real son. The fake Patrick we met earlier was named Ray Pruitt. As Ray tries to drive off with Dotty, Dwight and the rest of the cops catch up with him. Aware that his actions may have cost him his job, Dwight meets with Lt. Rice, who instead praises his work. He then invites her to see him perform after work, joining several of his co-workers as Dwight sings an Elvis song from a stage.
Breakdown:
This isn't an easy show to wrap your head around. In fact, I'd say that the stars and producers haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet either. "Memphis Beat" is very nicely shot and has a great setting and soundtrack. But it's still not that different from a lot of the other cop shows already out there.
The main investigation of the crime wasn't really that interesting. Dwight spends most of his time on a stake-outs with his partner Charles "Whitehead" White (Sam Hennings) and a random little girl who lives next door to Dotty when he's not arguing with Rice. If you're looking for action, there's not much here.
Jason Lee's Dwight is clearly a driven man, but it wasn't entirely convincing that he would go so far out of his way for Dotty just because she played the first Elvis song he ever heard on the radio. More likely, it's because he's kind of a momma's boy himself. He lives at home with his mother (Celia Weston), following his fairly recent divorce. In fact, his mom seems to get more action than he does. He also seems almost too interested in finding something wrong with her current boyfriend and neighbor, which he does before the end of the episode.
Dwight seems very overprotective of women in general, but at the same time, he's not very sensitive towards them. At the beginning of the episode, he's very happy with the breast light lamp that he brings into the police station. When Rice tells him that some women don't want to read by breast light, he simply puts a bra on the lamp. That was kind of funny, but it's also something that could have more potential if explored.
The most interesting thing about Dwight was the amount of faith that his fellow officers have in him. And he's clearly very good at his job. As for the singing, Jason Lee is actually not bad. He's no Elvis, but who the hell is?
The conflict between Dwight and Rice felt really forced throughout. It was as if the producers felt that they needed some tension so badly that they tried to have this confrontation immediately out of the box. Rice is essentially a bureaucrat who wants things to run more smoothly and efficiently. The audience never sides with the bureaucrat in these situations! It's not a problem of getting the audience to side with Dwight, it's making sure that they don't despise Rice immediately.
Alfre Woodard's best moments as Rice come near the end when we learn that she's essentially a failed mother, whose daughter won't even speak to her. That moment of humanity does a lot to save her from being just one dimensional, but she has to be more than just Dwight's professional adversary for her character to be viable.
The rest of the supporting cast doesn't get much to do in this episode, although I did see Abraham Benrubi (Kubiac!) who was last seen in the forests of "Happy Town" looking for a "Big Cereal."
As summer entertainment, "Memphis Beat" will do for now. But it wouldn't last long in the fall.
Crave Online Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
