With the demise of In The Heat Of The Night we lost a southern based police series which has now been thankfully filled by Memphis Beat. The primary stars are a pair of detectives Jason Lee and Sam Hennings and it's Lee who the focus is on. Lee is one cop who's not just about law and order. The man has an abiding interest in the blues and jazz culture of Memphis shared by his mother played by Celia Weston. She also gives her input on cases and with some pretty good instinct.
If this show catches on and becomes a hit and I hope it does it will eventually develop like In The Heat Of The Night where we got to know the entire community of Sparta, Mississippi. Especially its police department, but not just that. And that is a trend that goes back to Gunsmoke where over 20 years a cast of recurring regulars who never got billing as cast members, but showed up every few episodes like the town banker or the owner of the livery stable. Memphis Beat if done right can have that same kind of familiarity.
I do love Alfre Woodard who admittedly is borrowing a great deal from S. Eptha Merkersson from Law And Order in her role as the head of the detective squad. But Woodard is bringing a certain southern charm that's all her own here.
Memphis hasn't done so well since Tom Cruise settled down to practice law there.
