TV Jots

Tricia Helfer Joins Cast

TNT crime drama Dark Blue kicks off its ten-episode sophomore season tonight, August 4, at 9pm ET with a special treat for fans. The premiere features two episodes — “Urban Garden” and “Liar’s Poker” — which means viewers will get a double dose of action before the series settles into its regular hourlong format and 9pm–10pm time slot.

So, what’s new for the new season? First and foremost, the series has added another cast member, namely Battlestar Galactica fan favorite Tricia Helfer. The former model and current actress plays an FBI agent named Alex Rice. She meets Carter Shaw’s (Dylan McDermott) team of brave, competent undercover police officers during “Urban Garden” while working undercover herself to target the same dangerous criminal as them, but from a very different angle.

When it becomes obvious that Rice and Shaw’s teams share a common goal, they reluctantly join forces to achieve it. That doesn’t mean everything is hunky dory or goes swell, however, especially when one of Carter’s few close friends ends up paying a high price.

Of course, the situation makes Carter even more determined to take down the criminal, painfully, if possible. Yet, Rice is along for the ride now, and she has her own way of looking at things. Can you say “dramatic tension”? Unfortunately, there’s not as much between the two boss characters as I had hoped, but stuff has a way of happening, so what can you do?

Agent Rice and all of Team Carter’s members seem completely comfortable in their new LAPD/FBI task force roles during the second episode of Season Two premiere night, “Liar’s Poker.” Even better, while Omari Hardwick‘s buff Ty Curtis is a barely seen peripheral presence during the first episode, he moves up front and center during the second. That’s always a good thing because the character gives the series an extra shot of street cred, which is a necessity when plots revolve around assuming fake criminal identities and associating with assorted crooks and thugs.

Ty’s assignment is to get in good with a local drug dealer who has ties to a powerful drug cartel based in Mexico. While he does his thing just as convincingly as could be around the ‘hood, Logan Marshall-Green‘s shifty Dean Bendis works another angle of the same case.

Dean manages to get his own “in” by establishing a relationship with an attractive art gallery owner and suspect named Maria, played by guest star Jordana Brewster (Chuck, The Fast and the Furious) on multiple episodes. How fun it must be for Dean’s colleague and lover Jaimie Allen (Nicki Aycox) to watch him hook up with such a pretty gal. It’s hard to tell if she actually enjoys it or just puts up a good front hiding her true feelings; could go either way.

Although the episode concludes with a little resolution on Ty’s end, there’s enough unsettled business left for Brewster’s Maria to return during the August 11 episode “Shelter of the Beast.” Helfer will be back, too, since the special task force is just getting started. The actress makes a nice addition to the show, and she’ll eventually have a significant impact on brooding Carter’s life, too. How that will end, and whether the results will be good or bad, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Sneak a peek at the first hour of Dark Blue‘s double-episode second-season premiere below.