Talking over the upcoming T.V. Club assignments during this week's A.V. Club editorial conference call, we started speculating on what the TV spin-off of Paul Haggis' Oscar-winning movie Crash would be like. Would each episode feature a different car crash that set off a chain of events that first opened then worked to heal Los Angeles' racial wounds? And, if not, what would it feature? We didn't have an answer and yet no one was particularly keen to find out.
I don't think this staff has too many fans of Crash, in my opinion one of the weakest Best Picture winners ever. And I even like it better than most A.V. Club writers. It's got some remarkable effective scenes. (I'm thinking specifically of racist Matt Dillon's rescue of Thandie Newton.) I also appreciate that it talks about race. How many movies actually do that these days? But the problem with Crash is that goes to the other extreme: Everyone talks about race at all times in every scene, which feels as phony as not talking about it at all.
But enough of Crash: The Movie. What's Crash: The Series like? Well, based on one episode, it owes a lot to the movie that shares its name. Race-talking cops make a return, as does the film's depiction of a Los Angeles where tensions simmer when they don't boil. Oh, and there's a car crash. Trouble is, watching this pilot episode made me appreciate the movie that much more.
Why? Well, how about this: The crash sub-plot involves a cop-with-attitude (Ross McCall) colliding into a tough-talking Latina woman (Moran Atias). Drawn by her, in his words, "tight little jalapeño," he starts up an angry flirtation that, in a later scene, find him making sexual innuendo while administering a Breathalyzer test. (Sample line: "Just the tip now, baby.")