Memphis Beat

I was attracted to this show by the music in the commercials for it. It's a very smokey, upbeat music and, well, it's the little things. While I cannot sing worth a damn, I am attracted to music. So. It stuck in my mind, and then, I noticed that the main character was being played by Jason Lee. Who I fondly recalled from Dogma.

He played the fallen angel Azrael, who was very, very dapper in his white suit and matching hat! Very old Southern gentleman, aside from the horns. And he was willing to destroy all reality because Hell didn't have central air. :)

"No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air."

Or, y'know, because he hated being in Hell with all the whiny humans who apparently cluttered the place up and made it *worse*. Whatever. The motivation is not important!

He was also, I think the Chipmunk dad in Alvin and the Chipmunks. But I could be wrong there. Also, apparently, My Name is Earl was him, though I couldn't believe my friend at first when she told me because, well, just because. I never watched it - I'm not a sitcom person. Whatever. Not important.

And, Memphis Beat was a TNT show, and they've done some really great stuff over the past few years. I love The Closer, and Leverage (LEVERAGE! MY LOVE FOR YOU IS PURE! ELIOT! NATE!) *cough* Saving Grace is good, but I just can't watch it. The whole alcoholic thing is too much for me on a personal level. It's like after Hurricane Charley came through here, I couldn't watch the first season finale of SGA for awhile. *shrug*

So we're three episodes in, and I am very much enjoying this show. A) I like cop shows when they're done right. B) Jason Lee is awesome. C) It's got a very authentic feel as to Memphis and the people and the interactions that go on.

Lee plays a detective named Dwight Hendricks (and every time I hear the name Hendricks I think of 'Cujo' Hendricks from the Dresden Files, and now I'm wondering what *his* real first name is. I can't remember if we've ever found out. It's probably something like Doug.), who is a good 'ol boy, in the best sense of the term. He goes ape shit over the neglect and abuse of a little old lady in the first ep, and threatens to toss her son off the roof of the police station for allowing it to happen while he was off spending her money and *not visiting his mama!* I'm liking the interaction between him and his ex-wife. He's still in love with her, whatever they both say, but he keeps trying to *fix* everything about her life (not in the creepy, bad way, but like...her curtain rod falls down, and he wants to jump up and fix it right that second, but she wants to do it herself. Or she's trying to get a health-food catering business going, so he helps out by getting her permission to sell in the police station, and then gets all the guys to buy her food (which they throw out, because, *tofu*, ugh!), and she finds out and is mad at him for trying to *fix* everything, even things that aren't broken), but that last one is cute because he *is* learning, and he goes and apologizes, and it's *sweet*. He means well, but his dad died when he was young, and he's gotten so used to taking care of his mother, and everyone else, he has a hard time stopping and realizing that he doesn't need to.

His mom is dating this possible scum bag, but after the first time Dwight assaulted him, and then followed him and found him making up with a young woman at a bar, he's backed off a bit and is just watching the guy, without physically removing him from the city of Memphis. Yet. :)

Also, I deeply suspect that that really is Jason Lee singing and playing the guitar when they show Dwight doing it, and well, yum. *sigh* In the first ep, he did a *great* Elvis, and, yeah. I like.