Golden Boy (CBS) - Series Premiere: Synopsis and Review

‘Golden Boy’ is CBS’ newest police procedural, which premieres on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 at 10/9c. The first two episodes will air on Tuesdays, but then the show will move to Fridays at 9/8c. That almost seems like the network knows something about the show’s future ratings. But first, let’s have a look at what it is about.

Theo James (‘Bedlam’) stars in ‘Golden Boy’ as Walter Clark, the NYPD’s youngest Police Commisioner ever, at the age of 34. Nicely setting up the framework for the coming seven seasons, Clark tells the story of how he rose through the ranks since he first made detective seven years ago.

The story begins when Clark is a 26-year old who has been a uniformed cop for three years now. After heroically saving a hostage’s life and resuscitating his nearly-dead partner, the media first picks up Clark as the nation’s next object of affection. As a reward, and semi-forced by the extensive media attention, the Deputy Commissioner offers him the assignment of his choice. Clark, ambitious as he is, picks the homicide squad.

Since they think he didn’t really earn the spot, his new colleagues give Clark a hard time. Detective Tony Arroyo (Kevin Alejandro, ‘Southland’) is particularly hard on him, and treats him like a child, because he still has a bone to pick with Clark’s new partner, detective Don Owen (Chi McBride, ‘Pushing Daisies’).

Arrogant as he is (or has become), Clark meddles in the cases of his colleagues, and goes behind their backs to the Deputy Commissioner when he thinks he has found a lead. He immediately gets assigned the case, which doesn’t help his relationship with his colleagues.

The case itself is not very interesting, but after the investigation gets stuck and they have to release the suspect, Clark decides to ‘accidentally’ meet the guy, pickpocket his keys and break in to his house. Finally, Clark tells his partner he found some fantastic new leads, how he obtained them, and how he leaked crucial information to the press. Owen gets very angry and gives Clark some fatherly advise: “Sometimes you just have to be patient”. Patience clearly isn’t one of Clark’s strong suits.

After watching the pilot, I completely get why CBS decides to schedule this one on Fridays. The main character is cocky and unrelatable, and even the troubles with his junkie sister (Oh yeah, that’s right, Clark has a junkie sister, who played a very boring role this episode) don’t make him seem more human or likeable.

Apart from that, ‘Golden Boy’ is as generic a police procedural as they get. Someone had been killed, the homicide squad gets called in, they talk to some witnesses, break into the prime suspect’s house, and find the evidence against him.

The writers of this show are about as cocky as Clark, in establishing in the first couple of minutes that the show actually needs seven seasons to ever feel complete. But then again, I doubt anyone will really care. Similarly, we can see the CBS executives as the homicide squad, giving the rookie a hard time and scheduling it on Fridays. The question is whether the viewers are willing to play the role of Deputy Commissioner, giving the show whatever it wants anyway. However, as you probably have noticed, I have stopped caring for this show.

‘Golden Boy’ airs on CBS on Tuesdays at 10/9c, and moves to Fridays at 9/8c, starting March 8th.