An Autopsy: The Death of AMC's 'Low Winter Sun'

From the get-go, I really wanted AMC’s “Low Winter Sun” cop show to succeed.

While I was living in Washington, I watched ABC’s "Detroit 1-8-7," looking for Detroit scenes, a taste of home. I fell asleep during the first two episodes, and took a little hiatus. But I returned later in the season, and it started to grow on me. By the end, I was a fan.

It wasn’t the best show. It certainly wasn’t the worst. After one season, the network took the show out in the yard and shot it dead like a lame horse. Bye Bye "Detroit 1-8-7."

Then came “Low Winter Sun,”  a second chance for Detroit. Who knew it would end the same way? 

Shooting the Pilot

AMC started shooting the pilot in the fall of 2012.  I met the show’s executives and some of the actors.  They were all impressive. And to boot, the executive director for the pilot was Ernest Dickerson, who had directed some episodes of HBO's “The Wire.” Yes, “The Wire,” one of the great shows of our time.

My expectations were sky high. It seemed to have all the makings of "The Wire."  

Frank Agnew points a gun at Joe Geddes.

The actors and executives talked about how impressed they were with Detroit. How they wanted to make Detroit a character in the show. How this, unlike Detroit 1-8-7, would be a running story line throughout the season, not a show where the storyline began and ended in one hour.

I wrote several stories before the show launched. I went on the set one day, and wrote stories about actor Lennie James and consultant, Ira Todd, a Detroit cop. 

In late July, at a sneak preview in Ann Arbor, I watched Episode One, which started out with two cops, Joe Geddes (Lennie James) Frank Agnew (Mark Strong), drowning a very crooked cop, Brendan McCann, in the kitchen sink at Mario’s on Second Avenue in Midtown.

A Little Disappointed

When the show was done, I felt a little disappointed. I banged out a review on my laptop.

I wrote:  “It was a good start. The opening episode won’t blow you away.  But like any good series, the opener laid a good foundation, sprinkled with enough excitement and intrigue to make you want to come back for more.”

I felt that way. But frankly, I felt like they hadn’t done a great job of capturing Detroit, or for that matter Detroiters, even though there were distinctive scenes of Detroit, which included the People Mover. 

I was also a little confused at times. There were white guys who looked like narcotics cops hanging outside a crackhouse before one of them went in, robbed and killed a guy. I eventually figured out they weren’t cops, but criminals ripping off dope houses. That threw me off.

Plus, it seemed a little far fetched to see white guys running in the city robbing black dope houses. It just didn’t seem to fit what I recall from the many years of covering crime.

The show also had these Greek guys working out of Greektown in suits who were supposed to be the Greek mob. Those white punks on the street were supposed to be working for them. 

Dani Khalil

As the season went on, I gave the show the benefit of the doubt. I liked most episodes, but not anywhere near the ones in "The Wire" or for that matter "Breaking Bad," an AMC hit that came on just before "Low Winter Sun."

Most friends said they found the show boring and slow. I defended it, saying, “give it time.”

Some shows were in fact very slow moving. I told someone after one of those episodes: “Maybe they should call it ‘Slow Winter Sun.’”

Drawing Conclusions

After a while, I started to draw some conclusions:

• The show failed to capture the personalities of Detroiters and it was void of any real humor.
• Almost every scene looked gloomy.
• The characters weren’t all that likeable for a while. 
• Having Frank Agnew obsessed about a hooker he barely knew gave the perception that he was one shallow dude. 
• The whole Greek Mafia thing just didn’t work. 
• The show's executives talked about Detroit being a character in the show, how it was about redemption for both the characters and the city. It was an impressive goal, but I never felt like they really pulled that off. 
• Unlike "The Wire," the show for the most part ignored the politics of the city, which could have given the show more depth and made it more realistic.  
• Actor David Constable, playing internal affairs cop Simon Boyd, came off as a pretentious East Coast guy, a fish out of water. They could have explained him away as being a transplant from New York.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I thought the final episode finally hit it all right. There was action and suspense and the characters started to shine. They were even likeable. I thought, well, maybe they can take it from here and turn it into a great show.

Unfortunately, by then, the ratings were so very low.

Still, I hoped.

But like "Detroit 1-8-7," it got dragged into the yard of never return and was shot dead.

Just maybe another network will come along and hit it just right, right from the beginning.

Just maybe.

Also Read: 

• A Suspenseful Episode of 'Low Winter Sun' Debuts in Ann Arbor (July 29)
• An Afternoon on Detroit's Klenk Island: Filming AMC's Cop Show (May 11)
• Actor Lennie James Talks About Detroit's New Cop Show, The City, His Favorite Spots (June 12)
• DOA: AMC Kills 'Low Winter Sun,' The Slow-Motion Crime Drama Set In Detroit (Dec.6)