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Instinct - review


Dr. Dylan Reinhart is a former CIA operative who retired and put himself to academic pasture when he fell in love and got married. When a serial killer takes inspiration from his book on abnormal behaviour, he finds himself back in the field; this time with paired with Elizabeth Needham, an NYPD detective who finds it difficult to collaborate since the death of her partner cum fiancé. 

Reinhart enjoys the experience and becomes a consultant for the NYPD, working with Needham, and we are off for 24 episodes (two series) of police procedural with a psychopathic twist. I'm only three episodes in of Instinct, but the emerging pattern seems to be that the perp appears early on as a very minor character, and you can spot them a mile off. So far, so formulaic. 

What is less formulaic is that Reinhart and Needham like each other pretty much from the get go, when we are usually presented with a sometimes tedious game of the odd couple begrudgingly learning to respect and like each other. This make for a nice change and a much lighter vibe for the show. 

The biggest break of the mould, however, is in the fact that Reinhart, the main, main character, is an openly gay man. A married gay man. This leads to scene like the one at the end of episode three, where the victorious Reinhart and his husband kiss and walk off in the metaphorical sunset, holding hands. 

At no point is the Reinhart sexuality questioned. It is "normal" from the start (apart from a gently jokey moment when Needham is about to be first introduced to Andy, the husband, who she assumes to be a woman). 

When I saw the end scene I described above it hit me how subversive this all-in-all middling, slightly camp show, is in fact subversive. This is a show made by CBS, shown on Channel 5. It was made for the general public, not the gay audience. The gay man is the male lead, the very intelligent, action hero bringer of justice (there are limited fight scenes). He is not a secondary character with no life that serves as a plot device, as queer people usually are in mainstream productions. 

 I don't think there is an equivalent to that level of representation.
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