On The Air: Tommy (2020)

With Evil having ended its season a week ago, CBS had something entirely different warming up in the bullpen, if you will.

Tommy is a new crime drama that already has some folks up in arms because of subject matter, that in particular being the lead character, newly minted Los Angeles Police Chief Abigail "Tommy" Thomas (Edie Falco, ex-Nurse Jackie, The Sopranos, who doubles, predictably, as executive producer), who is openly gay.

Chief Thomas was hired after a damaging scandal forced her predecessor out of office, and so Tommy is imported from Long Island to be the first female police chief in the history of Los Angeles.

Right off the bat, there's a conflict between the LAPD, particularly involving a rogue cop, and ICE agents seeking to arrest an illegal immigrant. Unlike another freshman crime drama, All Rise, Tommy creator-co-executive producer Paul Attanasio paints the picture of ICE & the LAPD learning to work together to achieve the same goals, but doing things the right way. What that says to me is that Attanasio isn't about to make any inflammatory political statements about a certain bloviator in Washington in order to make this show work. Nuh-uh.

Following is a trailer. Audrey Marie Anderson, fresh from Arrow, appears in the opener.



The first episode attracted nearly 5 million viewers. And that, remember, was opposite Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I honestly think CBS can find room for it on the fall schedule. Evil was losing viewers as its season progressed, and, to be honest, the jury's still out on Tommy.

Rating: B-.