Cops and humor seem like an obvious mix, but how many great police station comedies can you name off the top of your head? I know, me either. Enter the Murder Squad, created by R. Chett Hoffman, Will Phillips and Matt Quezada, a cleverly-written indie series that launched last fall with six episodes of the most explosive action two file clerks can handle.
Ryan (Jayson Blair) and Gregory (Adam Jennings) are two low-level police employees stuck filing paperwork in the station while dreaming of playing in the big leagues as real cops — though, based on their conversations with office secretary Samantha (Tristen MacDonald), their idea of what that entails seems more inspired by Michael Bay movies than the observation of real police work. (A discussion in Episode 6 about who was a better detective, Columbo or Judge Dredd, is a particular highlight.) The result is reminiscent of Hot Fuzz without the action climax or Point Break homages and a lot more office politics — though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The writing is a bit heavy on the profanity but otherwise clever, and while Ryan and Gregory are pretty indistinguishable as characters they still manage to be the source of some pretty fun (albeit at times sophomoric) moments. Production overall is solid, especially on technical aspects like editing and sound. And I also really enjoyed the 70s-style theme and graphics, which did a nice job of invoking the old-school Starsky and Hutch-esque cop genre without clashing with the show’s decidedly modern setting.
Murder Squad has hit a block on its second season not uncommon to independent producers — it’s for want of funds, not inspiration, that’s holding them back from producing more episodes, as their March 15, 2010 news post admits (the all-Flash site prevents linking directly to it). Murder Squad‘s greatest weakness is that beyond the fact that its main characters work in a police station, most of the show’s actual content isn’t terribly different from other shows about young white guys hanging out. Refocused on detective work with a comedic spin, though, the show could be a fun addition to the web comedy world — provided, of course, that it can get some cash.
Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): By The Numbers: Budget Analysis of a Web Series
Comments have been disabled for this post