The Good Cop episode 3 review: The German legacy of Sherman Smalls

The first two episodes of Netflix’s The Good Cop produced solid, if not mixed, results. The premiere was a decent introduction to the series, but we really feel like episode 2 was when the series starting to really come more into its own. This is a crime series that remains very much entertaining, even if it is hardly television that you’re going to be talking about with friends and family the next day.

The case at the heart of this episode revolved around Sherman Smalls, an escaped convict and friend of Tony’s who found himself accused of murder — to make matters worse, there was evidence of him being the guilty party all over the scene. Yet, Sherman claimed he was innocent, Tony believed him, and therefore needed a place to hide him.

This is where things got a little bit crazy, given that this episode concluded with us seeing Sherman go undercover at Tony’s own home as his German girlfriend dressed in complete drag … which somehow, TJ temporarily bought. The scenes of the three of them together were the highlight of the episode just because of how so off-kilter they were, especially when TJ went later and thanked Sherman in disguise for coming into his father’s life. While TJ is not a character with a tremendous amount of depth in this series, there is something so heartfelt and earnest about him. It’s sweet, though in moments like these also disturbing given what you’re talking about here.

The good news for Sherman is that he was telling the truth, and he doesn’t have to worry about going back to prison for murder. Yet, he still has to go back to prison and seemed surprisingly okay with it. Maybe that’s in part because his time on the outside wasn’t that great in between having to spend time pretending to be Tony’s girlfriend or the time the two of them were tied up and almost killed by the real bad guy near the end of the episode.

CarterMatt Verdict

The Good Cop episode 3 feels in so many ways really similar to the second episode of the show, at least in that both featured Tony getting himself roped into some weird scheme and then his son finding a way to bail him out. This is a great father-son cop show, which does make it feel different than many of the other ones you tend to see on TV. It also has a very humble, old-school vibe — it’s show in a way reminiscent of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (even if they are completely different shows) and it feels very low-scale and down-to-earth.

We don’t think that The Good Cop will redefine television, but if you want to see an escapee dress up as German women in order to avoid detection from police, only to eventually go back to prison after they are cleared of murder charges, this is your show.

Related – Check out some more news on The Good Cop, including more episode reviews

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