Re-investigating The Unusuals – CliqueClack Re-watch

“Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)

What happened:

It’s a bad day for Jason Walsh: his partner, Burt Kowalski, is murdered and that same night he’s introduced to Kowalski’s replacement, Casey Shraeger, who’s literally been plucked directly from a prostitution sting to team with Walsh on the subsequent investigation. The two of them uncover that Kowalski was looking into the other cops of the 2nd Precinct when he was killed. The whole squad comes together to apprehend the shooter. Meanwhile, Banks thinks that Delahoy has a death wish during their search for a cat killer.

Particularly awesome things:

• Keep your ears open for a brief cameo by my pal Adam Ferrara (Rescue Me) as a vice detective in the opening scene. Rescue Me boss Peter Tolan was a producer on The Unusuals.
• Walsh’s speech at the end of the episode makes me dissolve into tears every time I watch it. That stands as one of my favorite individual scenes that I’ve ever seen on television. It’s perfectly acted by Jeremy Renner and beautifully written by series creator Noah Hawley (Bones).
• The episode was directed by Stephen Hopkins, who was the lead director for the first season of 24 and is credited with helping come up with that show’s distinct visual style.

Let’s talk about it:

I am of the opinion that most pilot episodes, by virtue of being pilot episodes, are average at best. The number of first installments I’ve raved about is probably in single digits. The Unusuals was one of them. I’ll admit that I tuned in because of the presence of Jeremy Renner, whose work I’ve loved for a decade…but by the end of the hour, I was head over heels for this show. This didn’t feel like a pilot; while it did the job of introducing us to every character and defining each of them, the exposition fit seamlessly into the story and that story was really interesting.

On top of that, the exposition was incredibly well put together: I didn’t feel like I was just getting a basic rundown of each person and a thing or two about them. Hawley got enough information out there that I came away with the beginnings of an understanding of who each person was, why they were that way, and where they might go over the course of the series.

And though we never got to know the guy, the character of Kowalski was an example for the whole series. We hear a lot of unflattering things about him; Sergeant Brown calls him a “bully” and a few skeletons come out along the way. Yet on the other hand,  Walsh cares about him, his wife honestly grieves his death and even his less-than-reputable mistress says he was a good man. So what do we believe? Do we write him off as a drunk who cheated on his wife and got in trouble on the job? What we take away from his death is what’s at the heart of this show: none of these characters are what they appear to be, but no matter how different they all are, they’re still people who matter.

The pilot shows that Hawley got the balance between comedy and drama absolutely right. There’s a lot in it that is laugh-out-loud funny (I love the comments from the dispatcher between scenes), and should be treated as such. I’m not going to look for a deeper meaning behind a guy in a hot dog costume. But alongside the funny stuff are characters who are taken seriously and treated with respect, even as they have to deal with crazy, often trivial things.

Which brings me to the episode’s final scene. I’m not going to delve into its specifics as I believe it’s something that needs to be watched. As mentioned above, this is one of my favorite TV scenes of all time, because it’s a meeting of great writing and perfect acting. Walsh’s sentiments are incredibly touching and Renner’s delivery of them is flawless: you’re in that moment with his character, sharing that vulnerability, caring about him and the friend that he lost. We’re shown that past the job, past the persona that he puts out every day, he’s also human and loyal and passionate about his career and what that career means to him. It’s so much in a relatively short span, and its impact has never lessened to me despite repeated viewings and years having passed.

It’s very rare to find a show that I still think about years after its departure, where the stories still make me laugh and the characters still make me smile. The Unusuals is still as great to me now as it was then. And it all started with this gem of a pilot. Now please, go watch it for yourself. You’ll thank me later.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Jun 25, 2012 @ 10:00 EST5EDT