The Unusuals

The Unusuals is a comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC from April 8 to June 17, 2009 in the U.S. and Global in Canada. The pilot and first episode were written by Noah Hawley, a former writer and producer for Fox's Bones. An ABC press release described The Unusuals as "like a modern-day M*A*S*H" that "explores both the grounded drama and comic insanity of the world of New York City police detectives, where every cop has a secret". Its premise elaborated:

Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) has just been transferred to the NYPD's Homicide unit from Vice and is instantly thrown into a setting of bullets and bodies. As she begins her new assignment, Casey finds that the squad is full of secrets, which serves her well, since she's keeping a few of her own.

The initial series order was for 10 episodes. Show creator Noah Hawley announced via his Twitter account in mid-May 2009 that ABC would not be bringing the show back for a second season.

The unusuals 1x06 the circle line

Cast

Amber Tamblyn as Detective Casey Shraeger, scion of a wealthy New York family who tries to hide her background

Jeremy Renner as Detective Jason Walsh, an experienced and respected detective with a painful past partnered with Shraeger after his partner is murdered

Adam Goldberg as Detective Eric Delahoy, Banks' witty partner

Harold Perrineau as Detective Leo Banks, who has an extreme paranoia of dying at age 42

Kai Lennox as Detective Eddie Alvarez, the oddball of 2nd Precinct who speaks of himself in the third person and lacks social skills

Joshua Close as Detective Henry Cole, a young detective who has a dark history

Monique Gabriela Curnen as Detective Allison Beaumont, one of the few female detectives at 2nd Precinct

Terry Kinney as Sergeant Harvey Brown, Commander of the 2nd Precinct

Ari Fliakos as Earl Bentley

Plot

Det. Casey Shraeger transfers from Vice to NYPD's Second Precinct with a mission: to clean up Sergeant Harvey Brown's station at his request. Her new partner is Jason Walsh, whose previous partner was murdered the same night Shraeger was assigned to him. Shraeger was chosen mostly because Brown believes her to be incorruptible, since she comes from a wealthy family and chose to work for the police from a sense of doing good, rather than for money.

As soon as she meets her new partner, they start a quest for Walsh's ex-partner's killer. He was known to be corrupt, but he was also investigating others at the Second Precinct, particularly Det. Henry Cole who once lived by another name and robbed an armored car. Cole's partner, Det. Allison Beaumont, is later revealed to be Walsh's girlfriend.

Besides Shraeger, Walsh, Beaumont and Cole, the station has three more detectives: Leo Banks, who wears a bulletproof vest everywhere he goes, because he is afraid he will die at age 42, as his father, grandfather and uncle did; Banks' partner Eric Delahoy, who has a brain tumor (causing hallucinations) but refuses to notify anyone, for fear that treatment could kill or cripple him; and Eddie Alvarez who sees himself as a "lone wolf" and talks about himself in the third person.

The show's cancellation left Delahoy's fate unresolved.

Ratings

*One Man Band" aired Tuesday night at 10, unlike the rest of the series which aired Wednesdays at 10.

DVD releases

It was released as an amazon.com exclusive on April 6, 2010. All ten episodes can be found on Netflix (via DVD only, not streaming), Hulu, Amazon.com, and free of charge on Crackle.

References

The Unusuals Wikipedia

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The unusuals