If there’s one subgenre of the police procedural I’m really enjoying these days, it’s the lighthearted or funny ones that mix the drama of a murder investigation with the quirkiness of the leading and supporting cast. The latest installment in this new subgenre is The CW‘s Good Cop/Bad Cop, which premieres on February 19. The series feels almost nostalgic, in the way it throws different points of view together, and in its classic CW approach of having the events of the episode feel just this side of delightfully unrealistic. All of this, I found rather charming. I can say the same for the cast, both leading and supporting. But if there’s one place Good Cop/Bad Cop stumbles, it’s in not letting the charm and the circumstances speak for themselves right away, injecting them instead with comedy that feels dated or forced until the series really starts to find its groove.
What Is ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ About?
Set in the fictional small town of Eden Vale, the series follows Lou Hickman (Leighton Meester, sporting a denim and plaid combo that would give Blair Waldorf a heart attack), a detective working at the Eden Vale police station under her father, Chief Hank Hickman (Clancy Brown). While Hank’s biggest priorities are more optics-related than anything else, he at least gives Lou the space to work using her unconventional means.
He does, however, throw a wrench in her plans when he reaches out to his estranged son, Henry (Luke Cook), a far more by-the-book type, and a detective himself, offering him a job working alongside his sister. Neither of them is thrilled by the arrangement, but, left with no alternative, they form a reluctant partnership.
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The show premieres on February 13.
‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ Stumbles With a Slow Start But Manages to Find the Charm
The weight of the show is borne, of course, by Meester and Cook. While Lou and Henry are initially victims of unnatural TV sibling writing — I can assure you, my brother and I do not regularly recount memories with precise expository detail just to prove a point — even that eventually goes away in favor of a much more grounded, emotional dynamic that really gives you the sense that these two grew up together. The way, for instance, that they switch from fighting to genuine fondness on a dime is peak sibling behavior. And while this doesn’t happen in the six episodes provided for review, the moment in the trailer where the two are asked if they’re a married couple made me laugh out loud. As I’m sure anyone who spends time with a sibling of a different gender as an adult can attest, that question is unfortunately far too common, and deeply disturbing every time. On a slightly different note, as someone who spent her formative years watching Gossip Girl, watching Meester take on a role this different from Blair Waldorf is endlessly amusing. And lest you think she’s left it behind completely, there’s one moment in Episode 6 that proves you can take the girl out of the Upper East Side, but you can never fully take Queen B out of the girl.
Entertaining as the show is, it does suffer from the growing pains that afflict so many series as it works to find its footing. Some of the jokes — Henry’s bluntness and hyperfixating (which read more like autistic coding than anything else in 2025), punchlines about Bradley’s weight, or how difficult it is to pronounce Szczepkowski’s name — feel like the product of another decade. These types of jokes luckily taper off as the season goes, fortunately letting the cast rely on their natural charms and chemistry with one another rather than forced jokes that feel recycled from days of CW past.
The world created in Good Cop/Bad Cop is a charming one, and that charm really shines through once the series gets going. The show is quick to introduce not one, but two romantic plotlines: a second-chance romance between Henry and his ex-girlfriend Marci (Phillipa Northeast), and a delightfully awkward mutual crush between Lou and fellow detective Shane Carson (Devon Terrell). Brown’s Hank Hickman is also a delight as a man who is so ready for retirement, but cannot actually retire yet, and the supporting characters — including his girlfriend Nadia (Blazey Best) and the EVPD staff Bradley (Scott Lee), Szczepkowski (William McKenna), Ray (Shamita Siva) and Lily (Grace Chow) — all match him for his comedic, slightly chaotic energy that makes for an entertaining small-town procedural, with Meester and Cook’s rock-solid sibling dynamic holding it all together.
Good Cop/Bad Cop premieres February 19 on The CW.
Good Cop/Bad Cop
Good Cop/Bad Cop is a lighthearted take on the small-town police procedural that, at times, stumbles over its own comedy.
- Release Date
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February 19, 2025
- Network
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The CW
- Writers
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John Quaintance
- Welcome back to my TV, Leighton Meester, I missed you.
- The scrappy small-town nature of the series is incredibly charming.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop is slow to start, relying on forced humor before things really get rolling a few episodes in.
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