The TV Column

It's Take Two for another dynamic detective duo

ABC’s lighthearted new crime-solving drama, Take Two, stars Rachel Bilson and Eddie Cibrian and debuts at 9 p.m. today.
ABC’s lighthearted new crime-solving drama, Take Two, stars Rachel Bilson and Eddie Cibrian and debuts at 9 p.m. today.

TV has had some memorable buddy cop shows over the years, and ABC has come up with another good one just in time to beat the summer doldrums.

Take Two, starring Rachel Bilson and Eddie Cibrian, premieres at 9 p.m. today. Check it out.

Favorite crime-fighting duos have included one in Jack Webb's Dragnet ("Just the facts, ma'am."), Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey, Miami Vice, Rizzoli and Isles, The Wild Wild West, Remington Steele, Silk Stalkings, CHiPs, McMillan & Wife, Hart to Hart, Simon & Simon, Moonlighting, Monk and even Gus and Shawn on Psych.

And, of course, more recently there has been ABC's Castle (2009-2016) with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic as mystery writer Richard Castle and homicide detective Kate Beckett. The series ranks in the Top 5 favorites on many buddy cop lists.

Take Two comes from Terri Edda Miller and her husband, Andrew W. Marlowe, the team that brought us Castle, and tweaks the Castle formula just a bit.

In this one, instead of being a writer, Bilson plays Sam Swift, the former huge star of a long-running hit police show whose televised meltdown after her boyfriend dumped her was epic. Think Lindsay Lohan/Charlie Sheen epic.

We first meet Sam as she's getting out of rehab.

Cibrian plays Eddie Valetik, a former Los Angeles cop who left the force after an unfortunate incident to become a private detective. He's very good at what he does, but shies away from high-profile and/or lucrative cases. Making ends meet has become a problem and the bills are piling up.

When Sam learns she's up for a comeback movie playing a private eye, her agent calls in a favor and Eddie agrees to let Sam shadow him for a couple of days so she can get a feel for the role.

Although Eddie "would rather swallow razor blades" than baby-sit a shadow, hilarity, drama and hijinks ensue because although Sam was only a cop on TV, she did pick up some investigative skills along the way. She's also impulsive and outspoken where Eddie is laconic and low-key.

Viewers will know the 36-year-old Bilson from her breakout role as Summer Roberts on The O.C. (2003-2007). Since then, she starred as Dr. Zoe Hart in The CW's Hart of Dixie (2011-2015) and had a recurring role last year on Nashville.

Cibrian, 44, starred in the NBC soap opera Sunset Beach, then played a firefighter on Third Watch and a police detective on CSI: Miami for one season. He also played police Capt. Ryan Slade in the second and final season of Fox's Rosewood.

On Take Two, there's some coquettish sexual tension between the impossibly cute Sam and the ruggedly handsome Eddie that evolves into reluctant respect once Sam demonstrates her case-solving skills and fills the detective's waiting room with potential clients.

Will that initial spark blossom into Castle-esque romance? The long flirtation between Castle and Beckett was fun to watch and the lovebirds finally got hitched in Season 7.

The slightly grizzled and world-weary Eddie seems much older than the playful and bubbly Sam, but it's no more than the real-life age difference between Cibrian and his wife, country singer LeAnn Rimes, 35.

In fact, some viewers may only know Cibrian from when their extramarital affair made Cibrian and Rimes scandalous tabloid fodder for more than a year and a half.

The couple, who met on the set of a Lifetime movie in 2009, finally got married in 2011 after Cibrian dumped his first wife, Brandi Glanville (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), and Rimes shed her starter husband, backup dancer/chef Dean Sheremet.

About the Take Two couple, Bilson says in an ABC interview, "Sam and Eddie have a very interesting relationship. There's an attraction and an annoyance. I think the audience will enjoy seeing that flourish."

Cibrian agrees, "[The show] doesn't take itself too seriously. I think what the audience will enjoy most is the dynamic between Eddie and Sam. That relationship and how it's going to evolve will keep them coming back."

Most importantly for viewers, co-creator Marlowe promises that the show will always be "warm and inviting."

"We have these mysteries and crimes," he says, "but we'll never be too dark. We live in a world that's kind of challenged now and we want to give the audience a place where they can go and have fun with these great characters."

The cast also includes Xavier de Guzman as Eddie's assistant, Berto, Aliyah O'Brien as Detective Christine Rollins, Eddie's "friend with benefits," and Alice Lee as Sam's assistant, Monica.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email: mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend on 06/21/2018

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