The two play classic roles --- old school cop vs. new school cop.
Bradley Whitford's character, Dan Stark, is a has-been detective whose career highlight happened some thirty years ago. He's also a drunk, who the police captain thinks needs babysitting. His babysitter is Colin Hank's character, Jack Bailey, the new cop. He's basically straight arrow. He's the kind of cop who still keeps a pen and paper for note-taking.
While their backgrounds are complete opposites, these two cops could actually and potentially learn from each other.
Dan Stark, a guy who is stuck in the glory 70's, still has a few old school cop tricks up his sleeves. He delivers results, in spite of. And Jack Bailey, who is quite ambitious, eager and driven, is more focused between the two. He's also more in tune to the way things work nowadays.
This exchange highlights their working relationship best:
Stark: Find anything?
Bailey: Yeah, a scrap of paper in the trash. Had a phone number on it and a meeting time. Could be a good lead.
Stark: Nice. Let's hit the streets, see if anyone recognizes the number...
Bailey: Or we could just put the number into the district computer. It will be a whole lot quicker than asking random people in the streets...
Stark: ..... Good call!
The Good Guys is created by Matt Nix (who is the guy behind Burn Notice).
I am not sure if Bradley Whitford deliberately forgot to keep his body in shape for this role. He definitely looks the part --- the wash-out clothes, the bloated beer belly and, what everyone's talking about --- the porn mustache! I'm currently watching The West Wing, where he starred for seven seasons, and the physical difference is....disturbing.
Colin Hanks is looking more and more like his father. He's also inherited his famous dad's comedic timing and perhaps even the academy-award winning acting chops.
The show also includes cheesy, funky 70's music. But I will most likely be annoyed by those little caption titles (pounded by the sound of a gun being shot) by third episode.
Here's the promo for The Good Guys:
