“10-8,” ABC, Sundays at 8 p.m.

Telltale quote: “Your job is to write tickets, keep a log of our calls, and this one’s real important – without concern for your safety or mortality, you must bravely harm anyone who tries to harm me. I have a family. They will be grateful.”

Overview: Danny Nucci plays Deputy Rico Amonte, a rookie with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department whose training officer is hard-nosed John Barnes (Ernie Hudson). After narrowly escaping a life of crime, Amonte now uses his N.Y. street smarts to help chase down perpetrators. 
   As the new graduates, Amonte and his colleagues are subjected to the ridicule and hazing of being rookies, including threats of not lasting through the first week, condescending remarks, and pranks by the other officers.
   While Amonte and his fellow newbies band together as often as possible, the focus of the show is on the Amonte-Barnes duo, a pair presumably matched for their comedic differences. While trying to work together, Amonte is constantly subjected to Barnes’ temper and impatience, which are amplified as a result of Amonte humiliating the senior officer in a training exercise. 
   In the first episode, the trainees are expected to wait in the squad car while their T.O.s eat. Since he neglected to read the training manual and thus didn’t pack a lunch, Amonte orders pizza delivery to the car, infuriating Barnes, but technically not being disobedient. This type of disrespect for authority is an attempt at humor, but is delivered unconvincingly. 
  After all, why would Amonte go to the trouble of getting through police academy to risk losing his job during his first six months of probation? His motives for acting out stem from little more than a juvenile disregard for the consequences of his actions, a characteristic that conflicts with his supposed authority as a uniformed officer.

Verdict: “10-8” is police-speak for “on duty and ready to hit the streets,” but it may become better known as a euphemism for “embarrassing new show,” as in “Looks like UPN has another ‘10-8’ on its hands with ‘The Mullets.’” 
   ABC, the network committed to reinvesting in its comedies, let this one-hour show slip through the cracks. Initially promoted as a dramedy, “10-8” is neither dramatic nor comedic. The Hudson- Nucci duo, intended to be the meeting of a stern, by-the-book veteran and an impertinent kid from the streets, plays out as a confusing match-up. 
   Close-ups of Hudson’s flared nostrils and furrowed brow do little to make his supposed intimidation more convincing. Instead, he behaves like a tenured teacher on the verge of retirement, who feels obligated to keep up some semblance of his once deserving hard-edged reputation.

For past Media Life reviews of the new fall shows, click below.

NBC's "The Lyon's Den"

WB's "Tarzan"

ABC's "Married to the Kellys"

ABC's "Karen Sisco"

NBC's "Miss Match"

CBS's "Joan of Arcadia"

ABC's "Hope & Faith"

CBS's "The Handler"

NBC's "Coupling"

CBS's "Brotherhood of Poland, N.H."

CBS's "Navy NCIS"

ABC's "I'm With Her"

WB's "One Tree Hill"

NBC's "Las Vegas"

CBS's "Two and a Half Men"

WB's "Like Family"

Fox's "Luis"

ABC's "Threat Matrix"

UPN's "All of Us," "Rock Me Baby"

UPN's "Eve"

WB's "All About the Andersons"

WB's "Steve Harvey's Big Time"
WB's "Run of the House"
UPN's "The Mullets"

UPN's "Jake 2.0"

NBC's "Whoopi"
NBC's "Happy Family"

A.J. Livsey's fall season overview