Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Barry Levinson, Dan Lerner, David Boyd, Millicent Shelton, Steven DePaul, Paul McCrane, Thomas Carter, Christopher Misiano, Peter Weller, Jim McKay, Felix Enriquex Alcala, John Behring, Leslie Libman, Steve Shill, Nick Gomez, Via Vision Entertainment.
Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta team up in this gritty drama series when a police detective is recruited to work undercover for the FBI’s anti-corruption task force that’s investigating her colleagues.
Lopez (Selena, The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan) plays the role of Harlee Santos, a single-mother NYPD detective who works for the task force, while dealing with her own financial and family problems. Emmy Award-winner Liotta (Goodfellas, Something Wild, Field of Dreams) is Matt Wozniak, a corrupt lieutenant who is the commander of the 64th Precinct’s Street Crimes detective squad and the main target in an FBI anti-corruption investigation. A 25-year veteran of the force, he had previously spent six years in the United States Marine Corps. Regarding her as a daughter, he is very close to Harlee.
The first season they’ve forged alliances with the area’s criminal element to keep illicit activities in the shadows — and, also, to line their pockets with cash. They take care of their own, as rookie detective Michael Loman (Dayo Okeniyi) discovers when he and Harlee bust through the door of a suspected drug den and he shoots a second too soon, killing an unarmed man.
Second season sees the story relationships continuing as Harlee navigates her fractured relationship with Wozniak, as she struggles to conceal her deepest secret. Following his discovery that Harlee collaborated with the FBI, Wozniak is confronted with a gut-wrenching dilemma of his own.
The third and final season uncovers the different reactions Harlee and Wozniak have, radically different reactions to their respective traumas, six months after dual near-death experiences.
This 10-disc DVD set shows how the series had reached its natural creative end point.
Lopez — who was also an executive producer — said: “We crafted a poetic three-season arc on how [Harlee]’s journey ends, which is true redemption. The way only Harlee could have done it — the hard way, the road less traveled”.
