Reviews: The Glades

Matt Passmore’s big US TV break The Glades was most-watched original drama in cable network A & E’s history.

The Aussie actor has the lead role as a bright, sarcastic and complex detective, who lands in Florida after being shot by his former police captain in Chicago under mysterious circumstances.

Several US critics gave him the thumbs up, although many were quick to compare him with Simon Baker.

Hollywood Reporter said:
“Glades” isn’t just well-cast, it’s a pleasure for all the senses; the lush greenery and ever-present bodies of water that sculpt the landscape of South Florida are a welcome respite from the usual urban boxes and traffic-jammed streets. In the end, the series itself is something fresh, welcome and a little tart — and just like a nice citrus fruit, it’ll be hard to stop with just one of these.

CBS News said:
For a network that carries dark and grim shows like “Intervention” and “Hoarders,” Sunday’s premiere of “The Glades” was a breath of fresh air for A&E. Unlike other popular shows in the same genre, “The Glades” is surprisingly funny thanks to its wise-cracking lead character. In the premiere episode, we meet Jim Longworth, a transplanted Chicago detective who is attractive and self-confident, with an extreme love for the game of golf. After being wrongfully accused of sleeping with his former captain’s wife, Longworth, who is played by Australian actor Matt Passmore, is forced to leave the department.

NY Daily News said:
It comes as no major shock that once Jim gets into the case, the detective’s wheels start turning and he’s into fourth or fifth gear. Somewhat more intriguing, perhaps, is that the further he burrows in, the more he resembles Simon Baker’s Patrick Jane from “The Mentalist.” (Both Passmore and Baker are from Down Under.) Beyond the same eye for detail and observation, he has the same mannerisms and the same bemused skepticism when he confronts someone he knows is lying. Maybe it’s an Australian thing. But we haven’t hit saturation yet, so Jim’s act doesn’t feel redundant. It feels like fun — the kind of summer show that no one has to take too seriously or spend too much brainpower tracking and analyzing. It’s a cool drink on the patio, which beats a car full of skeeters any day.

Boston.com said:
Ultimately, though, your feelings about Passmore will determine whether or not you cotton to “The Glades.’’ The show rides on his personality, which I found likable enough. He strikes me as a natural lead, able to be convincingly casual onscreen — even a little shleppy in his faded T-shirts. He doesn’t appear to be on a mission to grab our attention. He’s also persuasive as a romantic lead. He begins chasing after a nurse named Callie (Kiele Sanchez), and their chemistry is flirty without being cutesy. Callie is raising her son alone while her husband does time in prison, so we can’t be sure whether the pair will ever get together. Sexual tension: We’ve seen that played out on TV many, many, many times before, but Passmore and Sanchez do manage to make it fresh. They add some zing to the show — as well as to the network.

LA Times said:
As the show opens, he’s still sort of new in town, although not so new that he hasn’t already made an enemy of his partner and a pal of the medical examiner, Carlos Sanchez (Carlós Gomez). Apart from not playing by the rules — “Unorthodox? Try nuts!” cries Carlos when Jim wants to cut open an alligator to find that missing head — his signal quality is that, in his talkative self-confidence, he is kind of irritating. Not pathologically obnoxious, like old Doc House — more like someone that might have annoyed you in high school, a little too handsome for his own good, a little too smart for yours. But, though he is meant to be irritating in a charming way, irritating is still irritating. This can ring false or taste sour at times, as when he leans on a couple of teenage suspects, but Passmore largely pulls it off, in part by making the character a bit daffy; he just can’t help himself. And the producers surround him with jerks and dweebs and men less handsome or clever than himself to ensure that he’s the person with whom we identify and whose opinions we share; the plot conveniently supports his genius. It’s an old TV trick.

Boston Herald says;
Sanchez is the best thing about this show, a wounded yet functioning wife to an incarcerated husband and mother to a 12-year-old who seems ready to follow in daddy’s criminal footsteps. She conveys strength and a longing for stability all at once. Passmore, on the other hand, is trying too hard to be the next Simon Baker (“The Mentalist”). I won’t even go near the reveal of the killer except to say it hinges on perhaps the hoariest, laziest cliche in mystery writing.