Tequila and Bonetti
Tags: comedy, murder

Plot synopsis:
The lead character of the series, Nico ("Nick") Bonetti (Jack Scalia), is a policeman from New York City who is proud of his Italian heritage and very fond of his vintage rose-colored Cadillac convertible, which he inherited from his father. After he erroneously shoots a young girl during a gunfight, he relocates to a beachfront Los Angeles precinct on temporary assignment. Here he meets his new partners, Tequila (a large, burrito-eating French Mastiff), and Officer Angela Garcia (Mariska Hargitay), who joined the department after her policeman husband's death. Their boss is Captain Midian Knight (Charles Rocket), who is almost as interested in selling a screenplay as he is in police work. The series shows their investigations of crimes and the evolving relationships between the characters. This show has the peculiarity that television viewers are able to hear Tequila's thoughts.
Life is not easy for Bonetti, due to his remorse about the girl he shot and the strange habits of Californians whom he does not understand. His neighbors include a Puerto Rican psychic (Liz Torres), who hears Tequila's thoughts but initially believes she is hearing spirits. Bonetti develops a grudging respect for the people around him as well as for Tequila, who despite his faults is an excellent police dog. The dog is portrayed as having human-level intelligence and a street-wise, sassy attitude.
The show was developed by producer Donald P. Bellisario. His daughter, Troian Bellisario, had a recurring role as Garcia's daughter, who for a time is unaware that her mother has joined the police department rather than continue a career as an art dealer.
Each episode has a montage during which Bonetti plays piano and viewers see odd, sometimes disturbing scenes featuring Bonetti's neighbors and co-workers. Some of these scenes are from later episodes, while others remain unexplained. Each montage ends with Bonetti's memory of the shooting of the girl in New York.

Review: My annoying self, my pretty partner and the cute annoying voice-over dog. I really wanted to like this cop show. But for me the 3-way partnership of Detective Nick Bonetti (Jack Scalia) and his delightful partner Angela Garcia (Mariska Hargitay) and that annoying "talking", and I do mean every voice-over thought that could be culled out of that dog, got to be too much.The dog is cute enough but the constant voice-overs of his every thought just became too much of the tale. Just a few clever thoughts voiced per episode would have worked better. You really don't want to be beating him to his lines.Making the dog the 3rd partner put him front and center to the episodes and, for me got in the way of any kind of gripping action and interplay of the 2 human partners. Nobody seemed to be having that much fun nor really working their performances, except maybe that annoying dog, LOL. I might have enjoyed that canine a whole lot more if he only had the occasional clever punch line. He really is an adorable dog, don't get me wrong.So for me, this comedic cop drama fell flat. Bonetti himself had his own annoying quirks. His character was the Hollywood depiction of a typical Italian machismo Brooklyn cop as a fish-out-of-water cop in L.A. The back story of his accidental fatal shooting of a 12-year-old girl gave us some sympathy for his mental anguish-tortured soul as shown to some, i.e. the ex-wife but not to others. such as his boss. as in his 'I'm over it" false bravado. Bonetti is an accomplished pianist as we see him at the keyboards in all three of the first episodes. So we see he has a bit of a cultured, hip side to his cop persona.Created by Donald P. Bellisario who is also top writing credit for the episodes of this one-season show as well as executive producer. His amazing and prolific talent is so many classic shows such as NCIS, Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, JAG, Airwolf and Black Sheep Squadron, and the list goes on, really had me hopeful for a show I'd missed in 1992-1993.The first three episodes was it for me, I just couldn't stomach any more of Bonetti himself or the abundant voice-over thoughts of that cute but annoying dog. It was pretty clear to me I wanted to ax this after the 1st episode, and by the 3rd episode, reaching for that ax had become an obsession. I succumbed.