Edward Burns, the creator, writer and star of TNT’s new period cop drama “Public Morals,” wants to make one thing clear in the series’ debut episode. This show is about morals — you know, like in the title.
Working as part of the vice squad in mid-60s New York City, Burns’ Terry Muldoon, is the center of an elaborate network of characters, all of whom seem to flout the law, with various degrees of good intention or bad.
While exploring the morality of a troubled cop is a stupefyingly common theme among television dramas, what gives this show a glimmer of intrigue is the era it’s attempting to capture. Muldoon and his squad — tasked with regulating all illegal activity regarding gambling, drinking, prostitution and the like — are the arbiters of progressive reason, seemingly, in a city still operating with the soon-to-be-outdated social mores of the time.
Burns neatly outlines this worldview in a monologue from the premiere:
“Do you want to lock up a couple of old timers for having a drink on a Sunday morning?” Muldoon asks a young recruit. “What about the queers? You want to collar these poor bastards just because they want to get together, have a few beers and play a little grab ass? I know I don’t want to … We do what has been done for the last 100 years. We manage it for the city.”
But Muldoon still returns home to his nuclear family and delivers to his misbehaving teenage son the sort of scarring insensitivity that you’ll see in any ham-fisted recollection of a taciturn ’60s dad not grasping the way “things are changing.” He’s so full of contradictions, this guy.
There’s quite a bit of dialogue on the topic of morality crammed into the mouths of so many characters in just the first episode, but let’s take this as Burns’ thesis statement for the rest of the season. And 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.
The sheer number of characters in this ensemble, with all their intersecting of familial, workplace and underworld connections, makes for an enticingly complex set up for backstories that will unspool as the season progresses. It’s a bonus that Burns has packed his cast with compelling character actors like Michael Rappaport, Katrina Bowden (“30 Rock”) and Brian Dennehy.
The richness of the sets, soundtrack and costumes makes you yearn to see Don Draper sidle up next to the dirty young cop in the bar conspiring to hold illegal crap games. And maybe that’s part of what makes this a show worth watching. Even if Burns’ Muldoon is the sort of cop who’s only lightly soiled as opposed to dirty, there’s hints that we’ll see more darkness from him in upcoming episodes.
“Think of us as the landlords,” Muldoon says ominously. “If you want to be in business, you’ve got to pay your rent.”