Boomtown is a crime drama that aired on NBC for one 18 episode season and a second 6 episode season. Lasted from September, 2002 to December, 2003. Set in Los Angeles, it follows a crime from the point of view of the 7 main cast members and anyone else whose POV is important to the episode. This series provides gripping drama, three dimensional leads, some pretty good mystery plots, and all it asks in return is that you pay attention... which is probably why it only persisted in its original form for the first season.
The seven original main cast members:
- Tom: A second-generation LAPD cop who has his retired dad bugging him all the time. He arguably has the least screen time and development.
- Ray: A beat cop accused of stealing money from his old assignment in Vista Heights. Emphatically claims to be innocent.
- Fearless: Ex-military homicide detective with a list of 100 things to do before he dies. Also the writer's favorite character. He gets more screen time and development than anyone else, possibly due to being a holdout character from a pilot script for what would eventually be turned into Boomtown.
- Joel: Dealing with the loss of his newborn daughter and his wife's subsequent suicide attempt.
- Theresa: Became a paramedic after her mother died. Mostly defined as a possible love interest for Joel. Quits being a paramedic to join the police academy at the beginning of the second season.
- David McNorris: A cutthroat district attorney who's cheating on his wife with Andrea and has a drinking problem.
- Andrea: A reporter and daughter of an orange mogul whose character is mostly defined by her relationship to David McNorris.
This show provides examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Cops don't tend to always work with the same D.A.s and reporters case after case.
- Ad-Break Double-Take: Happens in the pilot.
- But I Digress: Ray has a habit of talking about unrelated things while on the job.
- Chekhov's Gun: The death of Joel's son to SIDS is mentioned in the pilot only briefly, but is the focus of the first season's finale.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Andrea in season two.
- Clear My Name: Joel in "Lost Child."
- Cop Show: The first season, to a point. Definitely this by the second season.
- Crime Time Soap
- Crossover: Fearless turned up on the pilot of Raines.
- Day in the Limelight:
- "The David McNorris Show", "Execution", and "Inadmissible" all focus on David, the DA.
- "Fearless" focuses on Fearless, also being the only episode told from one person's perspective. "The Freak" also focuses on Fearless.
- "Home Invasion" focuses more on Teresa.
- "Insured by Smith and Wesson" focuses on Ray.
- Defiled Forever: The killer's attitude in "The David McNorris Show". He prostituted himself in Saigon, which caused him a great deal of shame. Upon discovering that his daughter was sleeping with a movie producer's son, he mistook her for a prostitute and committed an honor-killing.
- Dirty Cop: It turns out one of the supporting cops is working as an inside man for one of the city's many gangs.
- Disgusting Public Toilet: In the pilot.
- Fiendish Fraternity: In the episode "Brotherhood", a fraternity believes that a pledge died due to excessive binge drinking, and they conceal the body in a wall to cover up their actions. Then it turns out that he wasn't dead, but simply unconscious, and instead was suffocated inside the wall.
- Friend in the Press: In Season 1, despite being married, district attorney David McNorris is sleeping with Andrea, a reporter, who often asks for inside scoops and (sometimes) gives him more positive press because of it.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The episode "Fearless" takes place entirely from Fearless's point of view.
- Generation Xerox:
- Invoked twice in "The David McNorris Show" A Jerkass producer's son is suspected of killing his Asian-American girlfriend. The producer is visibly surprised when he learns that his son actually isn't the kind of gigantic asshole he is. Meanwhile the real murderer is the girl's father, who saw heading off with the guy and was afraid she was selling her body to men as he'd done in Saigon, to his eternal shame...
- David's Freudian Excuse is that he feels he's becoming just like his abusive father by cheating on his wife and falling deeper into alcoholism.
- Halloween Episode: The Season 1 episode "All Hallow's Eve".
- Happy Birthday to You!: According to the DVD commentary, the reason Fearless sings "I Can See Clearly Now" in "The Freak" instead of "Happy Birthday to you" is that "I Can See Clearly Now" cost less to license.
- Last-Minute Reprieve: The villain in "Execution" has a cop kidnapped to get one.
- Love Triangle: Two of them.
- Modesty Bedsheet: A few times, exaggerated when Andrea remains draped in a sheet after David interrupts her at home.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Fearless' friend who died in the war returns to comfort him on his birthday in "The Freak."
- Passed-Over Promotion: Tom states this as the reason he doesn't like Joel.
- Police Brutality: In the second episode Tom says the best-case scenario for a guy in a high-speed chase is that they stop him and beat him with their sticks.
- "Rashomon"-Style: The main draw for the show, though it gets dropped in "Fearless" and then Season 2.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The attitude of a character in "The David McNorris Show".
- Smoking Is Cool: Fearless is a smoker.
- Terminally-Ill Criminal: Discussed and invoked in the episode "Home Invasion". A gang are breaking into family homes, torturing, sexually assaulting, and murdering whole families. The patriarch of the next family has terminal cancer, which results in him still being at home during the break-in. He delivers an Agonizing Stomach Wound to the would-be perpetrator and contemplates killing him. He and Joel discuss that he would still be in prison, which he says doesn't matter as he'll be dead anyway, but is reassured by the pain of the wound and the risk of infection, so he puts the gun down.
- Title Drop: In the pilot. "Living the dream in Boomtown."
- Working with the Ex: Fearless works with his ex, an insurance investigator, in "Crash".
