Cracked solid, if predictable
Cracked, CBC’s new procedural starring David Sutcliffe as a stressed-out 12-year Toronto police veteran reassigned to the department’s psychological crimes unit, reaches the one-month mark with Tuesday’s episode, White Knight.
Det. Aidan Black (Sutcliffe) has never really recovered from a traumatic incident on the job, years earlier, when he shot and killed two people. The department’s internal affairs division cleared him of wrongdoing, but he’s still prone to flashbacks and freezing in the line of duty. That creates problems in the episode, when he comes to the aid of a woman, played by Kathleen Robertson (Boss), whose windshield is being bashed in by a crazed homeless person with a long history of violence.
What happens from there is a little predictable and trite, though no more predictable or trite than an average episode of CSI from the current season. The real reason to watch Cracked, and what may earn it pickup for a second season once these first 13 episodes have aired, is the acting. While Cracked has a credible ensemble cast in supporting roles — Stefanie von Pfetten as the departmental psychiatrist who’s both minder and Aidan’s partner-incrime-fighting; Luisa D’Oliveira as the young, ambitious detective looking for advancement, etc. — it’s Sutcliffe who must shoulder most of Cracked’s burden.
Sutcliffe has an easy, understated presence. He underplays rather than overplays, which is fitting for a character whose deepest wounds are on the inside, not where everyone can see them. Tuesday’s episode touches on a number of mental-health issues, from survivor guilt to inappropriate behaviour in the workplace to that old reliable, sexual attraction between consenting adults — the emphasis on consenting.
If much of the background on-the-job detail seems realistic, that’s because Cracked’s co-creator and lead consultant is Calum de Hartog, one of about 100 officers with Toronto’s Emergency Task Force, a kind of real-life Flashpoint rapid response team. In his police career, de Hartog has talked emotionally disturbed people out of committing suicide, served high-risk arrest warrants and was one of the officers on the scene at last summer’s Toronto Danzig St. block party in which two people died and more than 20 others were wounded.
While some of the plot twists rely too heavily on coincidence — what are the odds, you may find yourself asking — Cracked is still a reasonably engaging hour of entertainment. It gets the background details right, and Sutcliffe is believable in the part, even if the story isn’t always believable. (CBC — 9 p.m.)