Shows like 'Westworld' and 'Person of Interest' are good; we like 'Batman'; and this makes a good companion to 24: Legacy—so the scheduling and the show's apparent basis are very strong.
Rodgriuez, Stasey and Kirk put in killer performances.
The diversity openly displayed on the show, and it is not even advertised as such.
The obvious lack of originality.
If the show continues in a procedural-like fashion, it'll get killed off before The Machine can even generate its number...
Of all of FOX's premieres, I put my heart on the line for this. I'm gutted.' This is behind-the-scenes, but the ethical talk the show prompted from its creator gave us some very unsatisfactorily dull answers;
This is tiny but I wish the show had a more memorable name. 'APB' sounds like a network channel.
‘APB’ jumps into a troubled Chicago precinct to bring the world of policing into the rapidly evolving technology of today.
‘APB‘ opens up with the introduction of unconventional billionaire Gideon Reeves (Justin Kirk). In a hugely dramatised version-of-events of a real story, Reeves is not only a tech-genius but he’s spurred on by the loss of his best friend. His friend is the assailant of pettiness and in revenge, Reeves and his filthy-rich money buys out the 13th Chicago precinct, in an act of both vengeance and eccentricity.
Reeves specialises in the type of engineering that involves robots, drones and all sorts. Reeves decides to fund the project from his own dollar, and soon finds the main inspiration of his engineering revelations: a crowd-sourcing app called ‘APB’.
Reeves: “It’s an app that works almost like Uber. You just go on it and within two minutes, help is ostensibly there.”
Do you know the app ‘Waze’? It’s used alongside Google Maps as a social media additive for GPS; it allows drivers, stuck in traffic, to report why and for how long. Instead of calling 911, APB allows for users to report the crime suspect; the department’s GPS-tracking system works like rapid-fire. We’re shown off by Caitlin Stasey’s taser-happy Ada Hamilton, Reeve’s tech assistant, and her “rag-tag team of hackers and nerds“.
Reeves shows potential-Detective Theresa Murphy (Natalie Martinez) that he’s more than just cash. He has real skills—maybe not Captain material—and the duo narrow down the suspect list. Therefore, he team deploy to apprehend the suspect with their new top-of-the-range gear, and a dangerous criminal on the loose. However, Chicago favour rears its nasty head when instead, a police officer is shot on duty.
RELATED l ‘APB’ Season One Trailer
The mayor instructs Reeves to back off, but surprisingly, it’s Murphy who requests a vote of no confidence. Despite the team’s initial distrust or want for change, they seem to want Reeves back with them. Reeves lost a friend; so have they. They know how it feels.
Assisting Reeves in apprehending the suspect is Officer Brandt (Taylor Handley) who gets shot as the duo uncover a house full of suspects. Tear-gas and stun-grenades later, they blink to consciousness where the task force seize a house full of drugs.
In a touching moment, Reeves tosses Murphy a much-deserved detective badge. But perhaps the biggest moment of all is the end in which Ada shows him just what APB could mean to Chicago. It’s a map of the city, and each red dot represents a user. It expands, and expands, until the map is positively glowing with actual, crime-reporting APB users.
The future of this Chicago has changed forever—but is everyone on the police force happy with this? With major advance in our own technology, how far away are we from ‘APB’? And is Justin Kirk FOX’s newest, most charismatic leading man?!
Does it sound familiar? That’s because it is. And it remains forever relevant.
Are you thinking of shows like ‘Person of Interest‘, in which ‘The Machine’ foresees a crime with only the team to determine perpetrator or not? How about that very real-life story we linked you? What about Edward Snowden’s revolutionary leak of just how much of your data’s being kept by the NSA?
They all come with a plethora of ethical questions. But ‘Person of Interest’s creators have always said they weren’t too fantastical—they were “five minutes into the future”. With Snowden and the leaks, obviously that was non-fiction. This kind of stuff happens in real-life..without any of us really knowing.
What ‘APB’ and the NSA excelled at, really, was preying on the commonplace of electricals within a family. Gone were the days when GameBoy Advances were cool; seven-year-olds play Candy Crush on their iPhone 3049s now.
We wonder how far on a Nolan scale of ‘Westworld’ to ‘POI’ how well-equipped the APB team will come to be. ‘Person of Interest’ regularly drew genius scenes such as lead man John (Jim Caviezel) stealing a New York City power-line cooler (…a tank of nitrogen gas). ‘APB’ has a more outlandish take (perhaps typical of ‘Fox’) but weaves in a quick, heart-thumping plot in the midst of a huge ethical dilemma. If the police became invincible figures, they would be beyond men—physically, and mentally. You’d have to be ethically pure too.
That’s why you need a machine—not a human. But humans code machines, so where is the limit there? Is that where ‘APB’ could ultimately fail? Via human error? ‘APB’ aired a strong pilot—but will it remain as a procedural? Or will serialisation take place later?
This is ‘APB’s key switch. Procedural results in a modernised CSI. A serial means it’s something more.
‘APB’ has the promise to show us ground zero when innate police instinct clashes with utter computing reliance. It is bigger than just a premiere…it’s vividly relatable social commentary too.
Policing isn’t always a hero’s job, and ‘APB’ makes that abundantly clear. The mayor, non-corrupted as of now, is not a boastful, powerful don of all dons. Unlike the jokers over on the hugely funny ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘, ‘APB’ attempts to seize the reigns of an argument that should have occurred on television a long time ago.
Greeves doesn’t please everyone with his fancy toys, and rightly so. Martinez’s Murphy even sneers:
Murphy: “Technology doesn’t solve cases. Cops do.”
The mayor and the captain are both reluctant to accept Greeves’ power over the department. But why shouldn’t they be? This is perfect for anyone who wants to exchange thousand word essays with us on the privatisation of the police force and its ethical implications.
Look, for example, at the presidential election. When you’re sponsored by X company, you’re supposed to advertise them. Same with Y company. Greeves taking over the precinct with money is not a good look. Anyone with money, in their world, could surely buy into the precinct. So why not mobsters? How did they know Reeves is not the Donald Trump of the 13th?
Really look and you’ll even find President Trump’s promise to quash the “carnage” of crime in Chicago. Isn’t that effectively what Reeves is trying to do?
But Reeves isn’t just driven by a good heart. He’s vengeful; he wants his friend’s killer. Yet if he’s the genius behind APB, then he can claim utter admin control. He could, technically, be untouchable. Yet creator Matt Nix (‘Burn Notice’) states:
Nix: “The biggest message of the show is that the technology is as good as the people behind it.”
It’s obvious ‘APB’ want to make Reeves the hero…but wouldn’t it be a life-lesson if he wasn’t?
Ultimately, it’s our humans who shine—and offer a problem.
As David Bowie once said:
“We can be heroes…just for one day.”
We must thank the brave and compassionate policemen and policewomen who go out there, every day, on a civilian battlefield. The world is often fighting its own mini silent wars 24/7. With the government spying on you everywhere you go (even if it’s via the ‘too many’ CCTV cameras on your corner, or all the personal information your phone transmits to third company parties), ‘APB’ is not-so-far off because the creation of such an app is possible if someone could be bothered.
The idea of their high tech gear is very much ‘Batman’-centric, which also involves a billionaire protagonist playboy of its own, It’s like ‘APB’ mushed together Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne and spat out an app-making, rather than suit-making, genius, in Justin Kirk’s Reeves.
Natalie Rodriguez and Caitlin Stasey shine in their respective roles. Martinez in particular is a role-model everyone should look up to. Firm, brave and the very definition of police—she, of all people, wins us over with the nutcracker Murphy. Of course we’re bowled over by Greeves waltzing in with his money and buying a precinct—it isn’t wrong but when has it ever been right?
Whilst we’ve discussed Reeves’ potential fall from grace, there’s another factor here. If APB were to be mishandled by the wrong people—it would mean disaster. Think of Tom Hardy’s Bane in Batman.
Ouch.
FINAL VERDICT: ‘APB’ is steady but certainly not settled past the rough waters ahead. What it lacks in originality and conviction, it makes up for in catchy characterisation.
David Slack’s prior engagement to the series potentially provided it with inevitable ‘Person of Interest’ comparisons. However, he also wrote arguably the best episodes—so will it falter without him?
We’ll see from here. His collaboration with Matthew Nix puts forward a strong case for a premise that initially had us shaking our heads. Yet Slack and Nix’s dialogue is witty as it is promising, and we only hope for an uphill climb from here, despite the relatively solid bar Slack and Nix have set.
Glenn Keenan’s cinematography is lovely. The sheer attention to detail will never live up to the show’s sort-of predecessor, ‘Person of Interest’, but Keenan’s done an excellent job of interpreting the script and getting a decent screenplay out of it. Kirk is particularly prominent as the show’s lead, which is perhaps essential. If Justin Kirk had been some one-dimensional Gideon, we would’ve loathed him.
The production doesn’t need much guidance but the music score—especially when it intensifies—is excellent. We have Jason Derlatka and Jon Ehrlich to thank for that. The latter’s fame rocketed when he worked on ‘Pitch’ and the escalating violin-score still echoes in our heads. Let’s not dub anyone the next Hans Zimmer, but it was a ruddy good job.
We really must thank the fun costume and props department for their designs, but all eyes are on Nix and fellow executive producers Robert Friedman, Trey Callaway, Todd Hoffman, Dennis Kim, and Len Wiseman to see how well the episodes gel following Slack’s departure from the show itself. Will it retain ‘Person of Interest’s addictive vision and ethical debate? We’ll have to wait and see (impatiently)!
But really: hands up who had a blast during the premiere?!
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