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3 year plan for Cops LAC

Cops. LAC. has ambitious plans to shoot two seasons back to back in 2010 with a third in 2011.

copsTV Tonight reveals more on Nine’s new drama for 2010.

Cops. LAC (Local Area Command) is currently its working title.

The drama will be set at ‘Seaview Local Area Command.’

The series is set to shoot from next May as 13 x 1 episodes. Nine’s ambitious plan is to shoot a second series immediately on the back of the first, no doubt to save on costs. Depending on when the episodes air, it could run the risk of not seeing how the market takes to the show. The second series is hoping to increase the episode order from the first, between 13- 26.

2011 is earmarked as a potential third production block, should it be picked up.

The characters in the series include 2 Academy graduates, one male, 29, one female, 19; a third generation cop who wants to become a detective; an ‘old school’ Senior Sergeant on the cusp of retirement; an early 30s detective who can read human behaviour in an instant; a mid-40s female Inspector with an impeccable work ethic; and a Superintendent who is smart, strategic, and respected by his peers.

Photo: stock image

22 Responses

  1. They’ll just take all the old cop-show cliches and shuffle them around a bit.

    “Mid-40s female Inspector”? How cliched is that in this politically correct era? Almost as cliched as the black female judge in so many US TV shows.

    We’re fed up with producers trying to brainwash us with PC claptrap. Give me DCI Gene Hunt from ‘Life On Mars’ any day. Yes, we know he’s a dinosaur, but audiences love him!

  2. I’m already over this.
    I know it’s just going to be same same half dozen bloody faces and high pitched voices we have to see and hear in nearly every other Aussie show.
    Seriously, are there no other actors in this country up for work?
    Has it even been fathomed that no one watches our stuff as we are sick to death of the same people and stories?
    There is only so much Colosimo, McClune, Dimitriades, Holden, Howard, Sweet, Mendelsohn, Newton ect, ect, ect that one can stomach.
    Crap acting, crap stories, budget and imagination levels too low.
    Better for Seven, Nine and Ten to just give SBS Independent the money and let them produce several more season of East-West 101.
    Now, that’s quality TV.

  3. Channel 9 have trouble committing to something for more than 5 minutes unless it’s 2.5 Men or 20 To 01, so it’s a bit of a stretch to think they’re going to keep interest in this new show for 3 years.

    and “a mid-40s female Inspector with an impeccable work ethic”…I’m thinking they’ve transplanted Vinegar Tits Vera Bennett into a cop show in 2010?!? 🙂

  4. Anybody remember when Ten shot a second series of Bingles before the first had aired? Rarely a good idea.

    @tom tom I think we actually probably have a smaller percentage of cops shows than either the US or UK. Nearly every show on CBS is a cop/crime show.

  5. “A normal cop drama set in the country without a “tactical response unit” or “homicide team”.

    I want the opposite. Rush should amp it up and have more robberies, car chases and shootouts instead of the predictable lame jokes and soap opera story lines they’re now putting in every episode.

  6. I find it weird that people are saying nine does not produce Quality Australian drama there have been some great Drmas Hello Underbelly! but to be fair there have been some shockers as well.

  7. is it our convict past? is that why we’re constantly inundated with cop shows?
    surely city homicide would have put nine off, or rescue ops.
    why not back something exciting? sea patrol was a good concept, even though it’s a bit same-same… underbelly is great too…
    why not develop some rich characters, maybe even non white characters… how about something in western sydney? or northern melbourne? or maybe in the pilbara in a mining town? why not a lead character who is psychotic? rather than georgie parker or lisa mccune acting girl next door?

  8. @ Clint

    I’d love for Australia to have a crack at Picket Fences, that was way more than a cop show it was like a heated political debate disguised as a small town story – absolutely brilliant television

  9. A cop show. How innovative.

    And along with “an early 30s detective who can read human behaviour in an instant” – i.e. Tim Roth’s character in “Lie To Me” – they have every other by-the-numbers cliché all in the one show, which will surely be shot on the cheap on low-quality HD cameras with cardboard sets, soapie-calibre lighting and inter-personal relationship dialogue straight out of a 70s Jackie Collins novel. Because that, of course, is Nine’s idea of quality.

    The tediously initialised title, though, is going to be easy fodder for reviewer headlines… “Cops LAC Talent”. “Cops LAC Ratings”.

  10. What I want to see from a crime/law drama is something like Blue Heelers or Law of the Land. A normal cop drama set in the country without a “tactical response unit” or “homicide team”.

  11. I don’t know why people are writing off a cop drama, we honestly don’t know the production that well, or the production values, or the concept. Could be the next ‘The Shield’, could be a feel good drama like ‘Picket Fences’ or ‘The Commish’ – all great cop shows.

    I’ll at least wait to see it on screen before I write it off…

    Police dramas are not going anywhere – they provide a lot of drama content.

  12. God it just gets worse.
    Set in a fictional suburb called “Seaview”?
    Could it be more cliched?
    Will the city also be anonymous and only ever referred to as “the city” as in Home and Away and Blue Heelers?

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