TV Review: Stumptown (2019). Cobie Smulders leads a solid cast in this gritty little detective story.

Image courtesy of ABC

Tv Review: Stumptown (2019) by Ben Jeffries (29/9/2019)

Season 1 Episode 1 - Forget it Dex, It’s Stumptown (25/9/2019)

44 Minutes

Drama, Detective Fiction, Action

Wednesdays on ABC, then streaming on Hulu

A punchy little drama with well drawn characters and a good balance of "fraught" and "fun".

Stumptown takes it’s name from the city of Portland, Oregon, which serves as the backdrop for the exploits of Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders), a Marine veteran who’s been down on her luck since she left the service 12 years ago. Unable to hold a steady job, Dex’s heavy gambling debts are making it hard to make ends meet for her and her younger brother Ansel (Cole Sibus). When the owner of the local casino offers to clear her debts in exchange for Dex finding a missing grandchild, Dex employs the skills she honed as a military intelligence officer to track down the missing teenager, and discovers along the way that she might just have a knack for private detective work. With a strong cast, and snappy writing to match, this punchy piece of detective fiction, adapted for ABC by Jason Richman from the Stumptown comic by Greg Rucka, comes in at a cut above your average network drama.

The episode opens in media res, with a pair of rough looking men driving down the road in a beat up Fox body Mustang. The heavy set, heavily bearded, driver lists off tasting notes as he sips from a travel mug. “Tart, but with an earthy finish,” he says before guessing “Ethiopian?” His partner, small and lank haired, winces as he takes back the metal coffee cup. “Kenyan.” He says. "But you were close." It’s a cute play on the Portland setting, where apparently even the criminals are coffee experts. Their discussion is interrupted by the sounds of knocking and muffled shouts from the rear of the car. “Sounds like someone’s waking up,” notes the burly driver. What follows is a dramatic, dynamic, action scene where each blow feels weighty and real, but also has room for fun and unexpected moments. Stumptown’s approach to violence is, well, violent. When Dex is sucker punched later in the episode she goes down hard. During the 44 minute runtime she’s progressively more bloodied and bruised. This isn’t a stereotypical network drama, where no-one ever gets a black eye and all of the scrapes are healed by the next scene. Through it’s well directed action scenes the show demonstrates that actions have consequences in this world, and the idea of learning to live with the consequences of actions is threaded through the story of the episode.

Network television is no stranger to this kind of detective story, but where other network detective shows might have similar premises, they don’t have the same attitude as Stumptown. By the time those shows get to the viewer they tend to have been sanitised, with all the rough edges and interesting blemishes sanded off of the characters and story, so that only the thinnest veneer of patina is left behind to differentiate from all of the other shiny shows with quippy dialogue and popcorn action. There’s a world where Stumptown was equally noted into the bland ignominy of being a pointless, female-centric, clone of Magnum P.I., a show which the creator of the original Stumptown comic cites among their influences. Thankfully, Stumptown escaped the network adjustment bureau relatively intact, retaining the colourful, rough and tumble shape of it’s source material.

Things don't tend to go Dex's way very often.
Image: ABC

Instead of some preternaturally lucky, charming professional detective, or a sexy femme fatale, Dex Parios is trouble on legs; she’s unreliable, she’s anti-social, her old mustang is falling apart, she drinks too much, and she’s a chronic gambler. She’s a Marine Corps veteran with severe PTSD and a bitter disposition to anyone who isn’t her brother Ansel or her friend Grey McConnell (Jake Johnson). Under all that damage though, Dex is still as determined and quick witted as ever, she can still throw a mean punch, and Cobie Smulders is exactly the right choice to play her. With her ability to convincingly play either tough, vulnerable, or a blend of both, Smulders fits right into the space of a smart woman with addiction problems, money problems, and an attitude problem. It’s a commanding performance as Dex goes from a moment of emotional weakness in one scene to a fist fight in a moving car in another, with Smulders never losing track of the characters complicated emotional drives. Smulders thoroughly owns the screen as she she explores the limits of Dex’s bruised persona, but hers isn’t the only strong performance in the episode.

Jake Johnson’s honest, hard working, and direct Grey is a good foil for Dex’s self destructive tendencies, and Johnson’s jovial delivery is a source of humour amid all the punching and kidnapping. Michael Ealy plays Detective Miles Hoffman, who takes his job seriously but is also sympathetic to Dex’s position. It’s a smart piece of casting, with Ealy playing the character more quietly and nuanced than you might expect. Camryn Manheim plays Hoffman’s boss, Lieutenant Cosgrove, who’s tough and professional and, while she’s not a major feature of this episode, you don’t hire an actor of Manheim’s experience for a single guest spot, so expect to see more of her as the season continues. As Dex’s younger brother Ansel, newcomer Cole Sibus is the breath of fresh air that refocuses the perspective of not only Dex, but the entire show. It’s his kind hearted advice and warm affection that keeps Dex from losing it completely.

The cast is equally interesting outside of Dex’s circle of friends and family. Tantoo Cardinal plays the owner of the local casino, Sue Lynn Blackbird, with whom Dex has a complicated personal history. Cardinal is sharp and prickly as the hard older woman who’s business seems to extend beyond the realm of the legitimate casino. Blu Hunt is appropriately frustrating as Sue Lynn’s rebellious teenage granddaughter, Nina Blackbird. Jon Bass is lots of fun in his limited screen time as fast talking underworld figure Baxter Hall, whom Dex encounters in a fun little red herring sequence as she tries to track down the kidnapped Nina on her first outing as a private detective.

A bruised Dex faces off with Police Lieutenant Cosgrove
across the interrogation room table.
Image: ABC

The episode does a decent job handling the twin responsibilities of establishing the timbre and tone of the show while also telling a self contained detective story, though the detective plot does take a backseat to Dex’s dramatic back story form time to time. That back story feels just a touch over dramatic as it piles tragedy on heartbreak, but it feels like a deliberate choice as the story draws on detective fiction cliches, in shape if not in specifics. With it’s themes of addiction and damage Stumptown could have come off pretty dark, but the script is littered with moments of fun and levity, from Dex’s sarcastic attitude as she verbally spars with Hoffman and Cosgrove, to cleverly arranged moments of interest in the well edited action scenes. Dex’s car is a consistent source of amusement, from it’s refusal to start at embarrassing moments, to the tape deck with a mind of it’s own, though that particular gag starts to lose it’s shine as it’s used one too many times in the episode. Overall, the episode is a well balanced mix of fraught and fun, where characters can have emotionally meaningful interactions, and light, breezy, encounters, without being limited by the confines of a typical network formula.

Stumptown is shot through with just the right amount of grit which, importantly, is allowed to sit in place, not rinsed away instantly by some cheesy gag or the sting of a catchy theme song. While it may not have the toothy edge of a more explicit cable show, it already sports a well cast collection of interesting characters fashioned in the spirit of classic American detective fiction, and the script is balanced and punchy.  With it's specifically alternative tone and Smulders' eye catching performance in the lead role, the episode is a promising signal of a series that could be worth keeping an eye on.

7/10

Stumptown Stars: Cobie Smulders, Jake Johnson, Cole Sibus, Micheal Ealy, Camryn Manheim, Tantoo Cardinal, Gregory Zarazoga, Blu Hunt

Created by: Jason Richman

Written by: Jason Richman, Greg Rucka (based on comics by)

Directed by: James Griffiths

a Production from: Don’t Tell Mom, The District, ABC Studios,

Distributed by: ABC