‘Division’ Doesn’t Add Up to Much

Cop shows do not get any more conventional than “The Division,” a new Lifetime ensemble drama premiering Sunday with back-to-back episodes.

Created by Deborah Joy LeVine (“Any Day Now”), this hour tracking four female police detectives in San Francisco feels common and cliched in terms of premise and execution. And the casting is uneven too.

Nancy McKeon plays Jinny, an unattached, rather loose woman given to safe sex on one-night stands with men she doesn’t recognize the morning after. Magdalena (Lisa Vidal) is an ambitious single woman with a son and a male partner. De Lorenzo (Tracey Needham) is a tough, terse veteran who clashes with her new partner Angela (Lela Rochon Fuqua), a patient, plaintive type who prefers talk over weapons when disarming scumbags.

Each character reports to Capt. McCafferty (Bonnie Bedelia), an able administrator who doesn’t hesitate to dress down her people when they foul up an assignment.

Judging from the debut, it’s the maverick Jinny who ends up in the doghouse most often, chiefly because she rarely follows procedure, resulting in embarrassment for herself and the department. The mundane cases involve illegally imported Asians toiling in a sweatshop, a sting engineered to arrest deadbeat dads and the violent murder (five gunshots to the chest and one bullet through the eye at close range) of a psychologist.

A sample of the humdrum dialogue--De Lorenzo to Angela: “It’s a 187.” Angela: “That’s homicide.” De Lorenzo: “It’s not gonna be pretty.”

The cast members are capable if not charismatic, with Vidal and Bedelia making the most favorable impressions.

Adding up the offenses, there’s a weak script, so-so cast and hackneyed situations. If the opener is any indication, “The Division” should be subtracted as soon as possible.

* “The Division” premieres Sunday on Lifetime with back-to-back episodes beginning at 9 p.m. The network has rated the debut TV-14-DLV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for suggestive dialogue, coarse language and violence).