Powerhouse movie producer Will Packer (Think Like A Man, About Last Night) has just sold his fourth series pitch under his company’s Universal Television deal, and it is an as-yet-untitled female buddy-cop show written by Amanda Lasher (Gossip Girl). With Lasher set to executive produce the show along with Packer, NBC have provided the creators with a script commitment.
Ccharacterizedas a “light” female cop show that centres on two LAPD homicide detectives trying to balance “messy” personal lives with their work on terrible crime scenes, the show seems to fall into a particular niche for the network that is currently poorly filled. While female-led drama – across the networks – boasts a vast array of strong characters, having those female characters lead a police-themed show as a pair is almost unheard of. Not since the days of Cagney And Lacey have we seen a cop show in which the female characters are not partnered with a man.
Although cop-themed dramas are ten-a-penny these days, Brooklyn Nine Nine proved that the same set-up sprinkled with a little humour can be very popular – so the fact that this new show is described as being a ‘dramedy’ bodes very well indeed. In 2013, The Heat, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, proved that audiences relish female-buddy pairings, so it seems that Will Packer is striking this idea at just the right time.
The success of such a show will, of course, depend heavily on the casting of the two leads – and there is no word yet on who might be in the running so far. The quality of dramatic leading actresses on television network shows these days is outstanding, so audiences will hopefully not be disappointed.
Who would you like to see in the lead roles of this new Will Packer television project? Let us know in the comments section below.
