'Gang Related': This Procedural Drama Offers Nothing New

What happens when producers from The Shield and 24 get together? Apparently nothing. Gang Related is the latest in network TV’s long love affair with the police procedural, and is little more than what you’d expect.

The series is created and run by Chris Morgan, writer of such mindless excitement as Wanted, half of the Fast and the Furious movies and most recently 47 Ronin. His resume speaks for itself. The flourishes of color and violence exist here, along with a loud soundtrack, and louder expository dialogue that spell the script out for the viewer whose hand must apparently be held through this by-the-numbers pilot.

Anyone familiar with the genre will find undeniable connections to classics like The Departed and The Shield. Ryan Lopez (Ramon Rodriguez) is a DEA agent under Sam Chapel (Terry O’Quinn) but secretly working for crime boss Javier Acosta (Cliff Curtis), who essentially raised him as an adopted son. Lopez and Acosta take very little action to keep their relationship a secret—meeting at a family picnic and texting each other on their regular phones (the DEA apparently doesn’t monitor anything that this known criminal does.) I really feel for Curtis and O’Quinn here; they’re both talented and well respected actors, and I couldn’t help but think they took this job for the paycheck, believing the pilot would never make series, especially since they deliver their lines with the vigor of a corpse.

The early investigation by Internal Affairs on Lopez recalls the early episodes of The Shield; the show even goes as far as to cast former Shield co-star Jay Karnes in a role similar to his Shield character Dutch Wagenbach. To those familiar with The Shield, Karnes’ presence is a reminder of a better cop show that pushed the envelope of both the genre and the medium. Once that enters your mind, you’ll remember why The Shield was a classic and why Gang Related is a pedestrian remix of better series.

It’s the inner-made-outer conflict of Ryan Lopez that drives the show. He has affection for both Acosta and Chapel, looking to them as the father figures he’s always lacked. His indecision of who he is combined with his shifting moral compass keep him on Acosta’s side, though not without guilt, and he lives in terror of being discovered as a double agent. Once Tanner, his partner, is killed by his adoptive criminal family, Lopez doesn’t so much question his loyalty as much as he does manipulate the situation to get revenge on the killer (his adoptive brother) without making it seem like he’s doing it himself. That said, Lopez doesn’t really take many precautions to insulate himself, but this isn’t the show for common sense, it’s a show for momentum.

To its credit, there are attempts made, some of which are successful, in setting Gang Related apart from the usual procedural effort. Unfortunately, none of it has to do with its story or character work, but in its sense of violence. It’s rather inventive. There are some interesting torture scenes, most notably one in which a police officer uses a Taser on a suspect’s genitals to wriggle information from him. The violence persists when Tae Kim (Sung Kang), for little reason besides intimidation of characters who don’t have names, takes a scorched red-orange burning bolt into his hand to show how easily he deals with pain.

What’s refreshing is that Agent Veronica ‘Vee’ Dotsen, or Hicks (Inbar Lavi) is shown to be the most competent in the field. It’s rare for an action driven show to feature a woman in a role besides the love interest or the complaining put-upon wife, and to see Hicks at the sniper rifle or gleefully planting evidence gives the police officers in this series a real sense of grit and danger. If any of these police officers were real, I would hope it would be Hicks and Kim. They’re both minor supporting characters—each only have a single scene to establish themselves and how they fit in either culturally or within the task force—but as the season unfolds, hopefully they’ll have more to do.

While the series has potential, it’s bogged down by its own set limitations—as far as content and writing. For those in love with the procedural drama and looking for a quick distraction, this is must see TV. For those who want to see a new take, skip it.

Gang Related airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on FOX.