After mowing through the first season of “Crash” on the Netflix streaming service, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The series is based on the same concept as the 2004 film of the same name — the lives of otherwise disparate Angelinos are ultimately connected.
It stars Dennis Hopper as Ben Cendars, a past-his-prime record mogul. In reality, Hopper is playing the same role he always plays — a man with great presence and intelligence who may or may not be totally insane. He takes a young wannabe rapper (Jocko Sims) under his wing as he tries to wrest control of his record company from his resentful daughter (Kari Matchett).
Another (and more dominant) storyline revolves around a married police officer (Ross McCall) who, via a car crash, gets involved with a beautiful but dangerous gypsy (Moran Atias). His partner (Arlene Tur) is having an affair with a dirty detective (Nick Tarabay) who is moonlighting for a Korean kingpin. A gang-banger-turned-paramedic (Brian Tee) gets tangled in this web, and a detective from another precinct (Tom Sizemore) is called in to investigate.
The series also follows a Guatemalan immigrant who makes the trek through Mexico to the U.S., a married couple that loses their life savings in the real estate market, and a homicide detective who is tasked with keeping a young witness alive long enough to testify against a murder suspect.
As we learned on “The Shield,” dirty cops make for excellent television, and while “Crash” isn’t quite as gritty, it serves as a nice fix for those missing Vic Mackey and Co. I’d also recommend it to those that liked “Southland” in that it’s successful in telling a big story that involves a lot of different moving parts. Unlike these two series, “Crash” is on pay cable, so the creators have even more freedom to tell their story.
Season 2 debuts on Starz on September 18. Between this series and the excellent comedy “Party Down,” Starz has something going.
