Summary: Great show I've been watching this series for quite awhile now, though it can be hard to find on cable. It doesn't come on until 10 0r 11pm, so I don't always catch it. In fact, I thought there were only two or three seasons, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was still being made--6 seasons I think.
The pilot establishes the premise like this: An attractive female detective is fast-tracked into a position of authority. Unfortunately, a major operation goes badly due to a minor misjudgment and she's not only demoted but she becomes a laughing stock. As either part of her punishment or road to redemption, she's transferred to the basement and told to pull together a special task force using retired detectives to solve cold cases.
The detectives she selects are all as good as she is (and despite her misstep she is very, very good.), but all have scandals in their past careers and have their little "quirks": one has an almost eidetic (so-called photographic) memory but can be obsessive when on a case and is on psychiatric medications--as well as a recovering alcoholic. He is stabilized by a sweet and long-suffering wife who has reason to worry about her husband rejoining the workforce. The second member of the team is quite the lady's man, with 3 ex-wives, 3 daughters and a grand-baby on the way. He's certainly charming enough--all 6 of the ladies regularly have dinner together--except to his new boss. Evidently, he also likes to gamble, and there are hints that he has financial problems due to his family obligations. The third retiree seems straight enough, except he holds regular conversations with his late wife--who is (legally) buried in his back yard. The fourth member of the team is a young policeman who was assigned to basically act as their gopher and clerk, but he's proved himself invaluable in many ways. For one thing, he is good with the computer and frequently takes their cases ahead by leaps and bounds, as he diligently works quietly in the background.
Mainly the show focuses on the differences in attitude from 15 or 20 years ago--like working for a smart, attractive woman when that would have been unheard of at the height of their original careers; procedure (apparently cops could freely manhandle or abuse the public in the past--sometimes leading to false confessions or wild goose chases); and technology like DNA as well as computers and the internet and how this changes case resolution. But the differences don't just show in the office, they also show in the cases themselves--in dealing with issues such as homosexuality, mixed race relationships, protests, etc. The show offers a real window to the past. A recurring theme is successfully solving cases simply because the original officers didn't do the job right in the first place: they were lazy; or sometimes they were so convinced that they knew who did it they ignored any evidence to the contrary, or they altered the evidence to fit their conviction.
Most of the time the cases aren't solved by new methods or technology but the same shoe-leather determination that has them re-interviewing all the witnesses, reviewing all the evidence, and simply looking at the case with an open mind and fresh eyes.
It's a great show with intriguingly unique characters. It's a smart show with interesting cases.