Dark Blue

NewsdayVerne Gay

This is a solid and particularly well-produced cop show--and should be, with Jerry Bruckheimer topping the credits--although we take off points for extreme violence.

Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm

If you're looking for unencumbered tough-guy entertainment, you won't be disappointed.

Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara

It's going to take more than an unshaven cheek and a few hollow coughs to make the character real, but Dark Blue's great supporting cast and high production values may buy its star enough time to disappear as effectively into his role as his undercover team disappears into theirs.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

Dark Blue is a more-than-casually- interesting take on cop shows.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

If you're missing the network cop shows that are on summer break, this should fill the void.

Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart

Dark Blue does not quite achieve the levels of Bruckheimerian dazzle in TNT’s reduced-resolution HD production. The premiere, however, is tightly paced and has a lot of turns to it, though as always I despair of the action genre’s tendency to create suspense by having somebody killed.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

It's too soon to say whether their characters are interesting enough to make Dark Blue worth coming back to, but there isn't one of them--Shaw included--whom I want to see with his or her feet in a bucket, being zapped with electricity.

PopMattersCynthia Fuchs

Their blue is less dark than medium.

New York PostLinda Stasi

The acting in Dark Blue is good enough to sustain what is, despite itself, a cop drama that even a rookie could solve.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

It's an OK but not exceptional crime drama.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

False identities are intrinsically intriguing, but on Dark Blue deceit lacks context and contrast; there is almost no cover atop the undercover, no monde clashing with Carter’s demimonde.

VarietyBrian Lowry

The depths to which law enforcement must go to thwart crime is a story as old as the hills, and would seem to require some new wrinkle to sustain it and stand apart from the crowd. Lacking that, this show is plenty "Dark" alright, but it's an awfully thin "Blue" line.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

This is a show about the world of men: They're tough, they're undercover and they speak almost exclusively in cliches.

Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker

With a grunged-up Dylan McDermott leading a team of undercover cops, Dark Blue tries for the broody, bang-bang action of Michael Mann's Heat, but achieves only lukewarm cliches.

Hollywood ReporterRandee Dawn

Blue is a confusing mix of cliche and posturing that seems more interested in framing a shot than telling a story.

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

This flashily photographed drama lacks the power of Bruckeimer's best.

TV GuideMatt Roush

The show does manage to sustain tension and packs a violent wallop when it isn’t walloping us over the head with its own moody self-importance. But mostly, the show seems so enchanted with its facile darkness that it left me awfully blue.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

The characters here are blanks, and the plots don't just steal from other shows, they steal from each other.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

The characters are not especially dimensional, and McDermott’s flat edginess as Carter doesn’t help. But what’s worse about Dark Blue is the sloppy plotting.

SalonHeather Havrilesky

Yes, Dark Blue is bad, so bad that it's almost good. But not quite.