Any channel hoping to make a decent splash with a foreign acquisition must hope it arrives propelled by a wave of hype and admiring reviews. Cop show Battle Creek – which makes its UK debut this week, tucked away on the Universal Channel – is an example of a different sort of import: one that washes up on these shores having already washed up at home. Despite being created by Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan, the offbeat US drama set in the eponymous, economically depressed Michigan city was cancelled by CBS after 13 episodes. That might make it sound like a tough sell, but here are six reasons you might want to visit Battle Creek after all.
It’s Due South V2.0
A square-jawed, straight-arrow law enforcement agent rides into unfamiliar territory and finds himself partnered with a scuzzy, street-smart cop. If that brings back fond memories of a certain Mountie-flavoured cult hit, you may well click with Battle Creek. Transformers star Josh Duhamel is dreamy new arrival Milt, setting up a one-man satellite office in Michigan after leaving the FBI’s Detroit field office in mildly mysterious circumstances. Dean Winters from 30 Rock is Agnew, the convincingly rough-and-ready local detective who takes an immediate and intense dislike to Milt, even as everyone else in town is charmed by his old-fashioned good manners and future-tech investigative hardware.
It’s a TV team-up between Vince Gilligan and the creator of House
Gilligan originally developed Battle Creek way back in 2002 – after his time on The X-Files but long before Breaking Bad. Perhaps it’s no wonder that CBS dusted off his old pitch, but even if the man himself was too busy with Better Call Saul to do anything more than take an executive-producing credit, at least they hired David Shore as a showrunner. There’s no such thing as a surefire hit in TV but teaming up the creators of Breaking Bad and House must have seemed like a reasonably good bet, and the pedigree shows. Battle Creek juggles its colourful character moments and procedural beats with a competence that stops just short of being off-puttingly slick.
It’s stuffed with interesting actors
While the focus is on its central mismatched partnership, there are plenty of notable actors doing good work in the margins of Battle Creek, including Meredith Eaton as a diminutive but scene-stealing coroner with the hots for Milt. Two-time Oscar nominee Janet McTeer is the quizzical police commander while former House star (and White House staffer) Kal Penn pops up as a self-medicating detective. There’s also an impressive list of guest stars, including Patton Oswalt as Scooter Hardy, a party-hearty mayor who bears more than a passing resemblance to Rob Ford, and Candice Bergen as Agnew’s con-artist mother.
It turns out less meth equals less stress
Breaking Bad, for good or ill, could be an incredibly stressful viewing experience, characterised by sequences of unbearable tension, bursts of shocking violence and a low-level but pervasive vibe of fate sharpening a very large axe. In Battle Creek, there are drug busts, kidnappings and even the odd assassination attempt, but they’re more likely to involve medical marijuana, knock-off sneakers or grand romantic gestures gone awry than life-changing moral compromises that will go on to haunt your ever-waking hour.
It pushes good cop, slob cop to the extreme
The mismatched buddy trope may be uncommonly well-worn on screen but, to his enormous credit, Winters absolutely throws himself into the battered, unkempt role of Agnew: a volatile and abrasive personality who – even when everything you’ve ever seen on TV would suggest he’s just about to develop a grudging respect for his saintly partner – is so stubborn that he clings onto his hostility with a dogged death-grip. Duhamel (who admittedly wasn’t called upon to show much range in the Transformers franchise) is just as good, playing the ramrod-straight, immaculately tailored Milt as a slyly self-aware and practically simultaneous combination of Clark Kent and Superman.
It’s a Battle that’s already over
We’re all time-poor in a content-rich age. Committing to Battle Creek will only take up 13 hours, meaning you can enjoy the ridealong without worrying it will take over your life. And you’ll have some killer context to drop the next time someone mentions they’ve just started watching Breaking Bad.
Battle Creek airs on Universal Channel tonight at 10pm.
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