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Cr: Justin Stephens/FOX.
A little bit of Dexter, a little bit of House, and a whole lot of swag, stir and you may get Rosewood. ROSEWOOD is the story of DR. BEAUMONT ROSEWOOD, JR. (Morris Chestnut, “Nurse Jackie,” “The Best Man” franchise), the city’s top private pathologist. Brilliant, cool with tons of charisma, Rosewood teams up with the tough-as-nails DETECTIVE ANNALISE VILLA (Jaina Lee Ortiz, “The After”), to uncover clues no one else sees and help the Miami PD solve the city’s most challenging cases. While she’s impressed by Rosewood’s incredible abilities, his constant optimism is more annoying than it is infectious. But somehow, week-to-week, this unlikely tag team will solve many crimes together.
Joining Rosewood in his practice are his sister and “toxicology queen,” PIPPY (Gabrielle Dennis, “The Game”); and DNA specialist TARA MILLY IZIKOFF aka TMI (Anna Konkle, “Man Seeking Woman,” “Betas”), who is Pippy’s fiancée. Rosewood’s mom, DONNA (Lorraine Toussaint, “Orange is the New Black”), is on the cusp of some major life changes that will affect her children profoundly. A matriarch with a lot of strong opinions, Shirley holds family gatherings sacred and makes Rosewood’s love life a regular topic of conversation. Rounding out the cast is Miami PD’s CAPTAIN IRA HORNSTOCK (Domenick Lombardozzi, “The Wire”) who is a great team leader but is terrible at managing his own life. Hornstock and Rosewood have a complicated relationship: while he can’t stand Rosewood’s big personality and sunny disposition, he acknowledges Rosewood’s stellar contributions to the department.
Plagued with his own set of medical ailments, Rosewood believes that every moment of life, no matter how small, should be embraced and lived to the fullest. This heightened awareness allows him to see details on bodies that others cannot. But what drives him most are the victims who are stripped of life’s moments.
There are some good things about this show: Morris Chestnut is very believeable as the cool guy who is easy on the eyes and can get his way. Rosewood´s sister and her partner are two lesbians getting married, and the show portrays that as their normal. It´s not the focus, it´s just people being people. I like that approach; hopefully TV evolves that way. Domenick Lombardozzi from The Wire is in charge of the Police Department and the show is centered in Miami.
There are also some not so good things: Everything is too easy for them solving the cases; and the tension between Rosewood and Detective Villa is way too fast-paced, it worries me the show will burn it out too quickly.
All in all, a show that has managed to get into my DVR, but one I´m in no rush to watch every week. Hopefully it can build around the good parts to become a solid hit, and start moving away from the bads.
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