Sarah Hays

Seen all the episodes to date. Stephen Dorff steps right up into the "Walker Texas Ranger" role, except in LA. I look forward to more. "A lawman," indeed -- the trick with the winch cable in the pilot struck me as the kind of practical solution to more guys with more guns than your back-up could get to the scene in time to save you from that makes sense, especially if you're not a one-man SWAT team, which this sheriff appears to not be. There's your first cliche busted. (And if the guy from supernatural who's going to try to re-do WTR isn't careful, this'll bury him before he can start.) More like that, more of the horseback work, more stuff out in the county instead of in the LA concrete jungle -- and yeah, more of the family life too. Dorff does good work around critters and kids, and those are the scene-stealingest co-workers any actor can have. The cast is interesting -- the characters too. Brian Van Holt looks better in this than he's looked in anything since "The Bridge," and he sells his USMC-vet cameo. The bit with the med kit was expected; his ability not to look like a sack of potatoes in a saddle, not so much. He manages not to make the off-duty scenes with foster kids who saw him shoot their dad less cheesy than the could be, too. Props to him there.