Shades of Blue (TV series)

Cast and characters

Jennifer Lopez plays Harlee Santos, a detective in the NYPD's 64th Precinct Street Crimes squad who is both corrupt and an FBI informant. She is a single mother to her 16-year-old daughter Cristina. Cristina's father was abusive, and after he got out of prison in 2005, Harlee set him up for murder. She became part of Lieutenant Matt Wozniak's team after he helped conceal that setup. When the FBI arrested her as part of an anti-corruption probe, she reluctantly agreed to inform on Wozniak in return for immunity. Ultimately, she gave up her career and freedom to dismantle the corrupt Intelligence Unit, serving three years in prison. Ray Liotta portrays Lieutenant Matt Wozniak, a corrupt NYPD lieutenant who runs the 64th Precinct's Street Crimes detective squad and is the primary subject of an FBI anti-corruption investigation. He has been on the force for 25 years and previously served six years in the Marine Corps. He treats Harlee like a daughter and is close to Cristina, driven by guilt over his own daughter Anna-Kate's fatal drug overdose at age 19. After Harlee's sacrifice, Wozniak drives her to prison and takes in Cristina as she requested. Drea de Matteo plays Detective Tess Nazario, a detective in Wozniak's crew whose marriage falls apart during the series. Following the previous season's finale, she is demoted to patrol duty in season three but regains her detective rank in the finale. Warren Kole plays Special Agent Robert Stahl, an FBI agent on the Anti-Corruption Task Force who serves as Harlee's handler. He becomes fixated on her, leading to his suspension and eventual firing. After going rogue, he kidnaps Harlee and becomes determined to destroy her, even killing his own allies and trying to frame her. Near the end, he traps Harlee in her home, but she kills him with Cristina's help. Dayo Okeniyi plays Detective Michael Loman, a rookie detective in the 64th who initially tries to remain honest among his corrupt colleagues but fully adopts the dirty cop lifestyle by the series' conclusion.

Production

NBC ordered a straight-to-series run of 13 episodes for Shades of Blue in February 2014. A teaser trailer dropped on June 3, 2015, featuring comments from Jennifer Lopez, Ray Liotta, and Drea de Matteo. The show first aired on January 7, 2016. A second season of 13 episodes was picked up on February 5, 2016, and premiered on March 5, 2017. A third season was ordered on March 17, 2017. On April 4, 2018, NBC confirmed that this would be the final season, consisting of 10 episodes, and it premiered on June 17, 2018.

Lopez landed the lead role in 2014. On February 26, 2015, Liotta, de Matteo, Vincent Laresca, and Warren Kole were cast as Lt. Matt Wozniak, Det. Shirley Nazario, Det. Tony Espada, and Agent Robert Stahl, respectively. Dayo Okeniyi was brought on as Det. Michael Loman. Hampton Fluker joined in a recurring part as Det. Marcus Tufo on March 30, 2015. Sarah Jeffery was cast as Christina, Santos’ daughter, on April 8. Gino Anthony Pesi was added as Assistant District Attorney James Nava in a recurring role on April 13, 2015. Anna Gunn signed on for a recurring role in the second season on June 15, 2016.

Principal photography for the first season started on June 5, 2015. Filming for season two began in July 2016, and for season three in April 2017. All production took place in New York City.

Reception

Critics were split on Shades of Blue, though Jennifer Lopez’s acting consistently drew praise. The series holds a Metacritic score of 58 out of 100 from 28 critics, and a 57% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews, with an average score of 5.8 out of 10. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus notes that strong work from Lopez and Ray Liotta isn’t enough to push the show beyond what it calls a standard network procedural. Robert Bianco of USA Today gave it two out of four stars, describing it as a very ordinary take on familiar crooked-cop stories. Slate’s Willa Paskin called the show “moderately terrible” but found Lopez “hugely appealing,” labeling her performance the program’s only consistent highlight. On the positive side, Yahoo!’s Ken Tucker deemed Lopez’s work “solid” and suggested it might be her best dramatic role since the film Out of Sight. Molly Eichel of The A.V. Club awarded a C+, remarking that while the plot begins straightforwardly, it grows twisty enough to eventually lead viewers back to the opening scene of a makeup-free, de-glammed Santos confessing to a camera. Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture offered a more enthusiastic take, writing that the series isn’t deep but is “sensationally effective,” knowing exactly what it is—a compact, melodramatic, TV-friendly version of 1970s and 1980s Sidney Lumet police-corruption thrillers—and rarely making a misstep.

Broadcast

The series made its Indian debut on Colors Infinity on January 8, 2016, following closely behind its U.S. release. Canadian viewers could catch it on Global, airing simultaneously with NBC's broadcast. In the Netherlands, Fox scheduled it for Wednesdays. Latin America saw the premiere on Universal Channel on April 7, 2016, while Australia followed on the same channel on August 2, 2016. The United Kingdom's Sky Living began airing it on July 13, 2016. Italy first offered it on the pay service Mediaset Premium starting September 22, 2016, before moving to free-to-air Canale 5 on July 5, 2017. Bulgaria's Fox Crime premiered it on October 3, 2016, and Germany's RTL on October 18, 2016. France 2 broadcast the premiere on March 13, 2017. Finally, Greece's Makedonia TV introduced the series on September 3, 2018.