Public Morals

It strides the line between comfortable and bold with enough confidence to become charismatic.

Burns gives us a good old-fashioned crime tale, just the kind of thing we need to end our summer.

Public Morals is engaging enough, with a jazzy pace, assured direction and a number of fine performances.

Even if subtlety isn’t going to be part of the equation, Burns makes up for it with his wiseguy humor, rapid-fire dialogue and a high volume of plot.

Public Morals doesn’t yet feel like a top-tier cable drama, but it has the makings of a highly watchable one, and stands a cut above much of TNT’s lineup in terms of ambition.

Public Morals is a handsome production that could benefit from more variety; half the scenes unfold in smoky saloons, and the washed-out cinematography favors browns and yellows to a distracting degree. Its story is engaging enough on a comfort-food level, but its themes are spoon-fed.

Public Morals is a mess.... [Working with Amblin Television and producers including Steven Spielberg] probably accounts for the show’s technical polish, but the thin and repetitive writing and the clumsy one-note direction--every scene plays at the same pace and volume, so that family dinners, squad-room arguments and murders seem indistinguishable--can’t be finessed.