# Cop-out: Spike TV’s newest unscripted show is by the book



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

We've got you surrounded: Although it's beautifully filmed, Spike TV's 'DEA' is not much different in content from a glut of similar reality TV shows on other networks.

Same cops, different felons.
Spike TV's latest unscripted show will look familiar to any reality TV fan.
"DEA," a six-episode series debuting Wednesday night at 11, follows an elite group of Drug Enforcement Administration officers in Detroit, the murder capital of the United States, according to this show.
Every time these officers step into a suspected drug dealer's home, they expect to face gunfire.
"Any time dope and money come together, there's always a possibility of violence," says DEA special agent Ron Hoyt.
The officers raid two homes Wednesday night. They arrest dealers and try to get them to turn on their suppliers.
The show is beautifully filmed. A drumbeat sweetens the tension, and there's the rub right there. "DEA" sets up viewers to be disappointed. Before each commercial break, the voice-over narrator warns that these daring law enforcement agents could face disaster at any second.
For viewers fed on a diet of scripted programming that builds to a natural, if violent climax, that's a tease for action.
But the police work goes pretty much by the book, which is good for the officers but bad for viewers who have been teased needlessly.
The best moments come when the show goes afield to show the camaraderie between the men who share this stressful job.
At one point, as two officers wait for a sting to go down, a neighborhood resident, suspicious of two white men in his black neighborhood, orders them off the block.
When they protest, he says, in what could be the funniest appropriation of H & R Block's catchphrase, "I own the alley. I got people."
The two agents are forced to bluff to explain their presence. They are completely unconvincing and they know it.
"DEA" comes from the unlikeliest source - "Today" weatherman Al Roker, who serves as one of the executive producers. His company, Al Roker Entertainment, co-produced the show.
While the visuals are strong, the stories will not surprise anyone who has seen even an episode of A & E's "Detroit SWAT" (or its cousins, "Dallas SWAT" and "Kansas City SWAT").
Still, as one officer says here, "We took a violent guy off the streets. That's always a good day."

_Series premiere Wednesday night at 11 on Spike TV._

http://www.bostonherald.com/enterta...iew.bg?articleid=1084319&srvc=home&position=2


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