Trailer for new limited series spin-off of FX hit show justifiable released this week. It is set in Detroit and I was able to say, in just 18 seconds in the trailer, that this show is going to dirty my hometown.
It’s not the cold, shrill flashes of some of Detroit’s recognizable landmarks with police sirens in the background that make me stop. It’s also not the title Reasonable: City Primeval, sounds bad, until you realize it’s related to beloved crime fiction author and Detroiter Elmore Leonard’s book City Primeval: Midday rush in Detroit (total justifiable series based on the work of Leonard.)
Are not. That’s the very wrong way to show traffic in Detroit.
I’m sorry, but a random hum of sirens, mid-day, in downtown Detroit? What? It was so wrong that the audio in the trailer threw both me and former Detroiter, current Editor-in-Chief Rory Carroll into a complete loop.
Although much of the show was filmed in Chicago, according to Durationclear reasonable of The crew at least gathered the B-Roll from the real downtown Motor City. Do you hear the car horn?
20% off
Nike Summer Ready Sale
Dive in
Whether you’re sweating profusely on your daily run or just hanging in the sunshine, Nike’s Summer Ready Sale has shoes and clothes for both.
I will bet you dollars to donuts you did not. Because we are not a honk-for-no-reason kind of place.
There are two causes for our quiet traffic: Number one, Detroit might have a reputation as a tough, crime-filled place to live, but this is still the Midwest and we come with the same level of politeness as a sister-in-law from Wisconsin. I personally know very avid drivers who lived in Detroit and are proud to have never touched a car horn in their whole lives.
The second reason is that almost every major street downtown is four goddamn lanes wide. Two separate freeways — M-10 and the shortest highway in the United States, I-375—just ends up in the center of our city and turns into swanky streets. Absolutely bananas. And since Detroit, as you’ve probably heard, isn’t really crowded in terms of population at the moment, there’s usually plenty of room for people to get around. No one is racing for location or space. It’s hard to lose patience with other drivers when you have so many options to overtake them. This is a city made by cars and we don’t feel terribly stressed driving in an environment like this. For example, I just went downtown to watch a Tiger baseball game on Sunday. It’s one of the busiest places in downtown Detroit, but it’s quiet enough on four-lane Woodward Avenue for me to continue chatting with a guy in a ’67 Ford Mustang Convertible from sidewalk one lane away
If this teaser implies that traffic was stopped because the bus stopped to allow main character Raylan Givens played by Timothy Olyphant to cross the street, then I have news for you: That’s even less like more realistic. No Detroit bus will stop to pick up a car, a person, or anyone else. They actually run these streets.
I know they need to honk to make it sound like a city. The production probably heard a lot of whistles in Chicago (show off) and thought, yes, this works. Cities have whistles, don’t they? Sure, most cities. But not all cities. Not this city.
Make FX better.
