The first new show of the midseason is Fox’s procedural cop drama “Deputy“. The show stars Stephen Dorff who has most recently been seen in the 2019 season of HBO’s “True Detective“. In this show he plays LA Sheriff Deputy Bill Hollister. He’s your typical hard-nosed cop who hates authority and breaks all the rules. As the show opens he’s being disciplined for refusing to engage in an ICE operation to round up illegal immigrants saying that it’s his job to protect them and not round them up just so that LA County Sheriff Department can get federal grant money for cooperating with ICE.

The show then goes to a case in the field where he engages in a high-speed car chase that is ridiculously over-the-top. Not quite “Fast and Furious” ridiculous but clearly unrealistic. It involves all sorts of dangers to the public such as him speeding down side streets and narrow alleys at high speed and eventually running the suspects off a bridge where they crash into a street below. That kind of reckless behavior would have someone kicked off any police force.

As the chase concludes, the higher-ups come to inform him that the sheriff has recently died of a heart attack and because of an arcane law from the days of the wild West, his most long serving deputy will be made interim Sheriff until an election can be held. And of course that’s him. So suddenly this almost rogue cop who everyone hates and who can’t follow the rules is now in charge of the entire LA County Sheriff Department.

The entire premise is so ridiculously contrived that you have to hold your nose just to buy into the concept. If the characters were compelling and the stories interesting you might be able to get by the ridiculous premise but unfortunately none of that happens.

Hollister is accompanied by his only friend in the department Detective Cade Ward played by Brian Van Holt most recently seen on TV in the series “Cougar Town” which I never watched. The show also features his driver/bodyguard a young lesbian woman named Deputy Breanna Bishop played by Bex Taylor-Klaus most recently seen in “13 Reasons Why” and also appeared in 9 episodes of “Arrow” as the character “Sin”. These two sidekicks are mildly interesting but can’t save this otherwise un-extraordinary cop show.

The plot of the opening episode was nothing special. The action sequences were okay although as I said before quite unbelievable. If you want a good action filled cop show you should skip this and watch SWAT or Hawaii Five-O on CBS.

I’m giving this a solid rating of “Skip it“.