TV Review: HIGHTOWN: Season 1, Episode 1: Love You Like A Sister [STARZ]

Hightown Love You Like A Sister Review

STARZ‘s Hightown: Season 1, Episode 1: Love You Like A Sister began its run as a new cop drama with the familiar formula of murder and mystery sprinkled with debauchery. While it seems interesting enough to follow a little more, the inaugural episode struggled with tone, pacing, and characterization enough to justify jumping ship on this story early. The only inspiring plot insert was our main character’s personal breakthrough toward the end.

Jackie Quiñones, played by charismatic Monica Raymund, is an aimless addict and reluctant law enforcer. Her partner, Ed Murphy (Mike Pniewski), is as hard-nosed cliche as they come, but with a heart. Watching them banter and “play” cop together was actually a bit of a bore. Later, their relationship seemed stronger and worthy of exploration. More concerning was the tongue-twisting amount of law enforcement jargon explaining all the different policing bodies that control one swathe of the beach in Cape Cod.

Jackie works for the Fishery Police and our other protagonist, Detective Ray Abruzzo (James Badge Dale) is some sort of drug enforcement agent. Ray’s got a bad attitude and does his job with a bit of reckless abandon. He and his partner Alain’s (Dohn Norwood) introduction took me back to Lethal Weapon days, and not in a good way. Ray’s methods are nothing to applaud, regardless of his conviction rate. Are we supposed to root for him after the disgusting way he entered that apartment?

Amaury Nolasco stole his scenes, donning the prisoner jumpsuit like a boss conducting business in the park as Frankie Cuevas. The fallen drug lord emitted vibes as deadly as any shot from a gun. The other breath of fresh air came from the direction of the fisherman’s son, Junior (Shane Harper) whose easy spirit belied a troubled darkness.

Actually, the whole of P-town was dealing with troubled narcotic pasts. Provincetown featured like a another character in the show. We were being exposed to the underbelly of the normally idyllic Cape Cod. Everyone in town was either on drugs or in rehab and that was the backdrop for Hightown. This introduction to our setting meant that we are in for a story about the shaky rehabilitation of not only several of our characters, but the town too. The cops thought they cleaned up the place, but we were made privy to the truth. P-town, like Jackie, needs drying out.

The episode’s tone was all over the place. I hope it is not indicative of what is to follow. Love You Like A SIster opened with a schizophrenic drugs-and-fun montage set to happy-go-lucky “Vacation” by Textones. The pairing did not work. We know we are in for an unusual cop drama, but the sweeter side of Cape Cod is never actually emphasized, so what’s the point of that music choice. Time goes from day to night without any warning between scenes. It is disorienting. The accents are OK, I guess, but unintelligible dialogue muddles some necessary exposition. The highs and lows were imbalanced. It was not cohesive or coherent.

I am not enthused for the rest of the season, but slightly intrigued about the journey of our heroine toward sobriety. She will latch on to the main investigation by a thin thread in order to orient herself toward recovery and a sense of real purpose. That is something I would like to see develop. Unfortunately, the main mystery and the characters involved are just not very interesting. Maybe something will come of it. We’ll see.

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