Dick Wolf has a serious problem. With one major exception, the TV series' he's made are almost always wretched. Such fare as "Mann and Machine", about a cop with an android partner, "Players", about three criminals who are recruited to help law enforcement as part of a plea agreement, and "Deadline", about the staff of a tabloid-style New York City daily paper, never quite seems to click. The elements don't fall into place, the actors tend to be mismatched and the stories tend to wander or drag all over the canvas.

The exception, of course, is the "Law & Order" family of shows. Somehow, he manages to get those shows right. The characters are compelling and beautifully acted, the stories keep you guessing and are exceptionally rewatchable and the pieces all fit nicely together.

His latest effort is ABC's Dragnet, which, unfortunately, seems to fit the pattern of the rest of his non-"L&O" shows.
I've watched Dragnet 3 or 4 times, trying to see if I could get into it at all, but, even as much as I love "Law & Order", it hasn't worked. The storylines have been very lightweight, and as I'm sitting here trying to write this, I find I can barely summon any memories of what I saw. In fact, there are really only two things that have stuck with me - the fact that they're used the same guy who does the voice into for the "Law & Order" shows to voice the episode wrap-up for each episode of "Dragnet" and that the ending of the first episode made me laugh as the killer, sitting in jail, tried to crow in triumph that he was "The Silver Slayer" - something that came off as just plain ridiculous.

Part of the problem seems to be that the show wants to focus on the characters, but has then provided us with two very bland characters. This lates resurrection of "Dragnet" brings back the traditional "Joe Friday", but Ed O'Neil doesn't come across well as the typically no-nonsense character. Perhaps its just the echos of Ed Bundy, the character he played for so long on "Married with Children", but there's an edge of insincerity - almost sardonic in nature - to the character that doesn't fit with the expectation. Maybe it's wrong to judge a character by a pre-conceived notion, but when creating a show that is an updated version of an original, and when an original character is being resurrected, it should be as close to the original concept as possible.