Mario's Musings: Stumptown
Hey, another television post!
Cobie Smulders returns to television in Stumptown after a nice stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Maria Hill after How I Met Your Mother ended. Stumptown is the nickname for Portland, Oregon, and is also based on a graphic novel of the same name (which was news to me).
Smulders plays Dex Parios, a military veteran with PTSD who takes care of her younger brother Amsel, who has Down syndrome. Dex has gambling debts out the wazoo, something her brother pokes fun at her about in a cute moment in the first episode. Also coming back to television is Jake Johnson as her best friend Grey, who runs the new local bar and is pretty much her moral compass. Rounding out the top billing is the always-amazing Michael Ealy as Detective Miles Hoffman, Dex’s contact at the police department and potential romantic interest.
The show kicks off with a hell of a fight scene, with Dex fighting two crooks from the backseat of her car that was carjacked. The show then flashes back to everything that leads up to the fight scene. All in all, the show has a lot of room to grow, and considering I’m a fan of the main three, I’m a bit biased.
Most of the first season is mostly going to be a case of the week format as Dex decides to become a private investigator and put her skills as an Afghanistan veteran to good use, and most likely there will be some background world building that leads to a more serialized format like most shows of this type. We’re sure to see plenty of butting heads between Dex and the Portland PD, as well as words of wisdom from Grey regarding how she’s conducting herself. Hopefully, Grey’s role is more than that as the series goes on, because Jake Johnson is too good to be stuck behind a bar. Besides, we saw him do that on New Girl. Make Grey her reluctant partner on certain cases for some laughs.
But I’m getting ahead of myself after only the first episode. Let’s hope for some consistent ratings since ABC seemed to put a lot of advertising juice behind this one. They need a new Castle and I like the look of this one.
Tune in tonight at 10pm on ABC and give the second episode a watch. I know I will.