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Matt Nix on The Good Guys
By Fred Topel | Image property of ABC
The Good Guys
Matt Nix reinvented the spy thriller with the cable hit Burn Notice. Now he sets his sights on the buddy cop genre. He created The Good Guys coming to Fox this month.
Matt Nix Talks Good Guys
“It’s an action-comedy wherein we follow these two cops,” Nix said. “So in a sense, it’s a procedural as they investigate usually routine crimes. They both, each for their own reasons, have been sort of banished to the worst jobs in the department. Every week they investigate a crime that can range from a small residential burglary to they could be reorganizing the evidence locker another week, that kind of thing, and dealing with a stolen car. On a week-to-week basis, it’s about how that intersects with a much larger crime and how they end up sort of getting involved in something much bigger. So I think what’s interesting and sort of unusual about the show is that we spend half the time following the bad guys. It’s similar in structure to some of the sort of independent films of the 1990s in that respect, that kind of film where you follow the bad guys and you’re following and watching different stories intersect in interesting ways, so it’s definitely an action-comedy but it’s got a big cool factor, and there’s lots and lots of mayhem.”
The show’s original title was Code 58. Even though they changed the name, Code 58 reveals a lot about the show. “Code 58 is the actual Dallas P.D. police code for a routine investigation. You call in a Code 58 if there was a car with a couple of teenagers making out in it in a park. That would be a Code 58.”
Don’t worry, Burn Notice fans. The Good Guys won’t steal Nix away. “Obviously, it’s a challenge, but I’d say all of my television heroes do it, so I’m talking to a lot of them. Shawn Ryan has been coaching me on how to do it. Apparently, it’s difficult even if you do it well. Actually, I’m really excited about it and the truth is, Burn Notice is 16 episodes. This is 13 episodes. So while it’s a challenge to have two shows going at the same time, it also helps, actually, that this show is more self-contained. There’s a small serialized element, but it does mean that we can work on tons of episodes at the same time. And so I’m really excited about it. It’s also sort of interesting. I was talking to David E. Kelley the other day feeling very glamorous as I did so. He said something that I thought was really smart, which is you kind of get a break from one show when you’re working on the other, and you can bring fresh ideas, and that was my conversation with famous producer David E. Kelley.”
The Good Guys may have the same sort of light touch as Burn Notice, because that’s just Nix’s style. It especially lends itself to the buddy cop banter. “Over the years I have just become comfortable with the fact that, if I sit down to write something really serious and dramatic, it will come out sounding like that. So it’s not like I sit down and go, ‘I’m going to make them laugh with this one.’ It’s just sort of things just kind of pop into my head. We were just writing a script, and Dan has a big thing about the properties of the dust they put on barbecue potato chips, and he’s trying to convince Jack that it’s a great thing. It’s sort of a weird thing to write, but it just sort of wanted to be written, and I went with it. So that’s what I’ve gotten more comfortable with as I’ve written more. That’s kind of how it comes out and it will either be funny or stupid.”
The Good Guys premiers May 19 on Fox.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of ABC
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