Product Description
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THE GLADES stars Australian actor Matt Passmore as Jim
Longworth, an attractive, brilliant, yet hard to get along with
homicide detective from Chicago who is forced into exile after
being wrongfully accused of ing with his former captains
wife. Longworth relocates to the y, middle-of-nowhere town
of Palm Glade, Florida, where the sunshine and golf are plentiful
and crime is seemingly at a minimum. But this town outside the
Florida Everglades isnt quite as idyllic as he thought, as he
finds people keep turning up murdered. Each case pulls Longworth
off the golf course and reluctantly into his element as one of
the sharpest homicide detectives in the field. THE GLADES Season
1 DVD is loaded with exclusive special features including unaired
deleted scenes, gag reel, behind-the-scenes footage, featurettes,
director and cast commentaries.
.com
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It might have been easy to classify The Glades in the
dime-a-dozen category of quirky, dramedic cop shows about a
fish-out-of-water detective cracking cases against a glossy South
Florida backdrop, especially given that the show turned up on the
A&E network. But The Glades has turned out to be a consistently
charming, well-scripted, and excellently cast anomaly in the
world of procedurals by placing its emphasis on fun and
funny, with an assortment of likable characters who are genuinely
pleasant to spend time with. The setup has disgraced Chicago cop
Jim Longworth landing feet first with a bemused attitude on the
homicide squad of the Florida Department of Law
(FDLE, a.k.a. State ). Show creator Clifton Campbell chose
a fictional setting called Palm Glades, where the glaring
sunshine covers locations that range from places that resemble
the swankest haunts of Miami Beach to the dankest hearts of
Everglade swamps. Longworth is drawn with impeccable guile by the
charming Australian actor Matt Passmore, who comes off as
all-American through and through, with his twinkling eyes,
cavernous dimples, and a pervading aura of irresistible cuteness
and devilish charm. Passmore makes the show, but he gets plenty
of help from a writing team that always gives him a quick quip
and clever wink to match the sharp mind that caps his expert
case-solving skills. The ensemble around him also gives the show
much of its appeal, especially Kiele Sanchez as Callie, a local
nurse and single mom who trades sparks with Jim while her husband
is in the slammer. Neither one can really decide what they want
their relationship to be (until the season finale, that is).
Sanchez is enormously engaging, with a wit that matches
Passmore's, and their scenes together have the breezy flow of
improv as they bounce ripostes, endearments, sarcastic asides,
and cautious flirtations against each other in a dance of comic
sexual tension. Other regulars who add to the personal and
professional camaraderie are Carlos Gómez as the medical examiner
and Jim's foil/friend, Jordan Wall as a geeky, brilliant
forensics intern, and Michelle Hurd as the homicide lieutenant
who may be exasperated with Jim's playful manner, but appreciates
his way of getting the job done.
The 13 episodes in this season-one set all follow pretty much
the same formula. A body is discovered in some exotic location in
the first scene, usually carrying signs of a grisly demise. They
end with Jim tidily solving the puzzle for us and explaining his
process to the killer in a denouement that also has a posse of
FDLE backup poised to swoop in and snap on the cuffs (shades of
Columbo). What keeps the stories from falling into the humdrum of
mundane TV-ness is the terrific chemistry of the cast and plot
arcs that hew to themes of Floridian lore, but always with a
playful sense of spice. Episodes involve things like golf,
alligators, golf, manatees, hurricanes, golf, NASA, treasure
hunting, prostitution, smuggling, and golf. (Jim likes spending
time on the links almost as much as he does chatting up babes and
solving nice juicy murders.) There are limited special features
in the DVD set, but the selected commentaries add some extra
color, as do the ubiquitous deleted scenes and a couple of on-set
documentaries about the casting process and the importance of the
show's varied uses of the locations available in Florida's big,
hot backyard. In all, The Glades is a top-tier cop show from a
lower-tier cable network, as satisfying as a powerful drive down
a sun-drenched fairway. --Ted Fry