Full disclosure: I had low expectations for Copper, the BBC America original series that debuted last night. The hype surrounding its premiere made me wonder just who the network believed was the audience for this historical police procedural set in Civil War-era New York City. (I mean, honestly, they had the cast ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week.) Objectively, I should have been a prime target for this show. I love historical dramas and I’m a BBC devotee. But BBCA wasn’t aiming at me.
The fact that BBCA teased Copper nonstop during its recent airing of Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York also gave me pause, for when I imagine the past, Cameron Diaz is not what I envision.
Things were veering directly toward Hollywood, which was understandable if (in my opinion) regrettable. Copper executive producer Barry Levinson and series co-creator/executive producer/writer Tom Fontana, who worked together on Homicide: Life on the Street and on Oz, are Hollywood names to reckon with. Will Rokos, the other co-creator/executive producer/writer, was Oscar-nominated for his Monster’s Ball screenplay. I can’t deny their success. Yet their bios on the Copper website don’t highlight the one thing I’d have thought would be vital for creating this show: experience working on historical drama.
Digging a little deeper, I found that Fontana has a series called Borgia that is available in the U.S. via Netflix. It stars John Doman (William Rawls from The Wire). It’s a hit in France and it should not be confused with Neil Jordan’s The Borgias on Showtime.
So, I’ll say this: Don’t let the BBC tag fool you. The production values, the acting and characterization, and especially the storylines and writing on Copper are strictly Big Three network stuff. As a series on, say, CBS, Copper would be about average. If you’re expecting full-on BBC/Masterpiece-style craft you might be disappointed.
We begin with Detective Kevin Corcoran of the Metropolitan Police, New York City, 1864. He’s played by series star Tom Weston-Jones, whose credits, I was told, include MI5, although I couldn’t for the life of me recollect his role. IMDB says he played Sasha Gavrik, the Russian diplomat’s son, in the final season.
Sporting a fashionable two-days growth of beard and wearing a knee-length leather coat that could have come directly from Prada’s Fall 2012 menswear collection, topped with a hat I think he borrowed from Jack White, Corcoran becomes involved in a shootout just minutes into the action. Bank robbers are apprehended, and Corcoran and his comrades proceed to fleece them of the cash and valuables they just stole from the bank. (Our hero is a rebel!)
By this time, we’ve also seen his first interaction with a child prostitute who—disturbingly—offers him her services in exchange for a hard-boiled egg. He declines her offer. Were we really supposed to believe he’d accept? (Our rebellious hero has honor!)
Yet, a scant 10 minutes in, Corcoran and his fellow coppers are blowing off steam in their favorite brothel, complete with gratuitous sex scenes and naked butts. (Copper is historical and hot!)
Eva Heissen (Franka Potente), who runs the brothel, is Corcoran’s main squeeze. Naturally, since Corcoran’s our hero, his girlfriend might be a prostitute, but she’s also a voice of reason, common sense, and sensitivity. (A hooker with a heart of gold!)
Still, we learn Corcoran’s only with Eva because his wife ran out on him while he was away fighting in the Civil War. (Our rebellious, honorable hero has been wounded by love!)
Then knock, knock . . . Corcoran’s assignation is interrupted by his friend Andrew O’Brien (Dylan Taylor), who tells him a body has been found and they must investigate. The victim is a child, killed by a blow to the head from a peculiarly shaped weapon. Corcoran, whose own young daughter was murdered, sets out on a crusade to find the child’s killer. (This time it’s personal!)
And on we go, leaping from one cliché to another, from one predictable manipulation to the next. It’s fine . . . but you can’t help thinking you’ve seen it all before in different places, with different clothes and different accents. The good guys are pretty standard and the bad guys might as well be wearing giant neon signs on their heads flashing “Don’t Trust Me!”
Matthew Freeman (Ato Essandoh), the clever surgeon whom Corcoran befriended during his four years fighting with the Union Army, is a character with some potential. His trial-and-error forensic investigation into the child’s death was interesting to watch.
On the other hand, every female character in the episode is either a prostitute or a virtuous wife. And the child prostitute Annie Reilly (Kiara Glasco) is just plain creepy. Resembling Angelina Jolie at age 10 and dolled up like Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby, she’s supposed to elicit our pity (at least I think that’s what she’s supposed to do). Instead, I found it impossible to believe she was human, especially when she recites—and reciting is the only way I can describe it—the tale of her fall into the world’s oldest profession. The lines she is given to speak are so cumbersome and stilted, you’d never imagine them coming from a Ph.D. in 2012, let alone from a child prostitute in 1864.
Am I quibbling? Yes. Will people love this series? Some will. Ten episodes have been made, so if you enjoyed the premiere you have something to look forward to. For me, however, Copper requires a lot of improvement to make it shine.
Did you watch? What did you think?
See all of our Copper coverage.
Leslie Gilbert Elman is the author of Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous, and Totally Off the Wall Facts. Follow her on Twitter @leslieelman.
Read all of Leslie Gilbert Elman’s posts for Criminal Element.
