TV Reviews for Regular People: Stumptown
Stumptown, ABC Television
Finally getting around to watching this one. This is the show I’ve been seeing promos for all Summer. This is the one network show all of the real critics recommend. So, how was it?
It was – good. I guess. I may have mentioned before that I am pretty much guaranteed to check out any new show if it stars an actor I really liked in some other show. And I have loved Cobie Smulders since she first walked into MacLaren’s pub all those years ago. Stumptown gives her a great origin story: Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD with a gambling problem who takes care of her brother with Down Syndrome and has trouble holding down a job. In the pilot episode, she’s hired by the owner of the casino (who she owes money to) to track down her missing granddaughter. We haven’t seen a private detective on TV this gritty since Jim Rockford retired. If you like action scenes, this is your show.
I’m going to give another shout out to the network casting directors. This is another show with a fine supporting cast. Michael Ealy plays Detective Miles Hoffman, real copy and obviously potential love interest for our heroine. Camryn Mannheim is his supervisor (and she is fabulous in EVERYTHING!) Promos for the rest of the season show Donal Logue joining in. I would watch for that reason alone!
Did I love it? No, as much as I wanted to I honestly can’t say that I did. But I’d bet this is one of the big hits of the new season. It’s interesting, entertaining and different. Bonus points for taking place in Portland instead of LA. Leaving this one in the rotation for now.
Been kind of excited about this because it’s set here in PDX; however, the show only does occasional location and establishing shots here. Most of the principal photography and, to my understand, all of the editing and other post work is done up in Vancouver BC.
I am currently working through the Sandman graphic novels (OT did a book club of them before but I did not participate in that one because at the time I didn’t have discretionary funds to buy graphic novels), and when I am done with the principal run of Sandman, I shall move on to Stumptown. They’re highly regarded and widely available.
And I agree, Cobie Smulders has more charisma atoms in her body than carbon.Report
If your interested in a show set in Portland, check out Grimm–it’s cheesy, but there’s charm to the cheesiness, and I think they did most of the shooting in the Portland area.Report
I watched Grimm for a bit, but it never really pulled me in. Then they did this one horribly anti-Semitic episode, and I get it, if you’re taking from German fairy tales there’s going to be an element of that, but come on, it was a vulture named Dr. Levine.Report
Yeah, I had to google it to remember, but the wesen form does look like an anti-Semitic stereotype. It’s ironic, I guess, because much of the show dealt (rather heavy handedly) with the “racism” different types of wesen.
I guess for us, the appeal of the show was the predictability of the episodes with monsters of the week, etc. And we dug the main characters.Report
I used to think that Donal Logue was always good, but always in bad things. My new theory is that he’s incapable of elevating material. I mean, he’s probably going to play the Donal Logue character.Report
Stumptown’s either going to run for 8 seasons, then exist forever on streaming services, or be gone in 13 episodes.Report
Why does Dex have to be bisexual? I will quit watching unless they fix her! I think gays are determined we are going to watch this display of sex on tv. I don’t care if someone is gay, bisexual or whatever else they need but don’t put on tv.Report