Graceland

[A] bust doesn't go as planned and sets up what promises to be a nicely complicated season. [13 Jun 2014, p.76]

It’s the broader story of Briggs--is his hat white or black?--and his unfolding relationship Warren that elevates Graceland a cut above your dime-a-dozen crime dramas.

Graceland is an entertaining addition to a strong summer lineup in which attractive people trade witty banter and engage in serious work that provides good clean episodic fun while teaching the main characters the importance of love and loyalty.

The connection of Graceland to real-life events doesn't much matter. It feels promising as television, and several characters besides Warren and Briggs--including a DEA agent played by Serinda Swan, switching sides after “Breakout Kings”--have the potential to make us care about their stories.

[Graceland] is barely distinguishable from USA Network's long roster of crime capers featuring pretty people in gorgeous settings.

The series needs to work more on the writing and less on the lighting to make these particular characters welcome week after week.

Government agents loll around the beach, exchanging the kind of banter for which television writers would, in a just world, be sent to some quiet place to reflect on their idiocy. All this, amid the plotting of incoherent designs to trap drug dealers, and plenty of sand and dazzling blue skies--elements that have on occasion succeeded in mitigating the flaws of some deadly TV series. This deadly series isn't one of them.