On hiatus

Two favorites are currently "on hiatus" as the networks like to say. ABC's "Detroit 1-8-7" and the FOX show "The Good Guys" are both ending or have ended their season runs, and it's unclear whether new episodes will be ordered.

That's too bad. These two very different cop shows are mildly engaging at worst. At best they offer interesting characters and stories, more than can be said for most TV shows.

"1-8-7" is another in a line of gritty police shows, starting with "Hill Street Blues" and through "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "NYPD Blue." Michael Imperioli is brilliant as enigmatic Detective Louis Fitch, and "NYPD Blue" vet James McDaniel is among the others in the ensemble. While some have portrayed it as "just another cop show," it is more than that. It may not be brilliantly original, but it is engrossing and unpredictable. Plus it helps Detroit's economy. What's not to like? Its biggest problem may be that it is on opposite "The Good Wife." It has gotten love from the likes of Time magazine, but whether that will be enough to give it a second season is still unknown.

"The Good Guys" is at the other end of the spectrum. If "Law & Order" was ripped from the headlines, this opposites attract buddy cop show seems ripped from "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Police Squad!" with a little C.S.I. and "48 Hours" thrown in. Bradley Whitford chews up the scenery as old-school cop Dan Stark, and Colin Hanks is appealing as his initially earnest and appalled partner who is gradually coming around to Stark's methodology, often to his own chagrin. Throw in an interoffice romance between Hanks's Jack Bailey and his on-again DA squeeze Liz Traynor, while awkward but endearing CI Samantha Evans harbors a not-so-secret interest in Bailey. It makes for a very messy show, one that is impossible to take seriously, but that's not the point. The point is a lot of car crashes and explosions, repartee that Stark seems to think is either witty or profound but is neither, and a grudging acceptance of the fact these things seem to work out by Bailey, Traynor, and cop boss Lt. Ruiz (Dan's ex-partner and ex-love interest - told you it was messy). It's too broad to be that funny, but it's still at least a couple steps up from dreck such as "Chase" or "Hawaii Five-O" or any of the garbage that is reality TV.