The police mystery series “Memphis Beat” — which returns at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday for a second season on TNT — is set in the home of blues and barbecue and shot primarily in LaPlace, La., a zydeco and Cajun music center that is the self-described “Andouille Capital of the World,” in recognition of a popular spicy sausage. Protagonist Dwight Hendricks, played by Jason Lee, is a police detective. He also moonlights as a rock and soul singer, crooning Elvis tunes and Memphis classics.
The term “identity crisis” comes to mind. This season, however, “Memphis Beat” hopes to resolve its aesthetic schizophrenia by making Hendricks a more believable police officer — and human being — and by being truer to the title city that is its inspiration, even if Louisiana’s tax incentives and other economic realities prevent the program from being shot in Memphis.
| On TV |
| ‘Memphis Beat’ |
| When: 9 p.m. Tuesday |
| Channel: TNT |
The show underwent what Lee calls “a huge retooling” in the offseason, and has returned with a new creative team, including new producers and writers.
“I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first season,” a surprisingly candid Lee, 41, admitted.
“I just didn’t think it worked as well as I thought it would,” said Lee, a professional skateboarder-turned-actor who was introduced in such independent films as “Chasing Amy” before finding popular recognition in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movies and the TV series “My Name Is Earl,” which ran for four seasons on NBC. “It was almost like a season-long pilot, and we were working it out as we went along.”
Lee said the presentation of Hendricks in the first season was “too precious” in its Elvis Presley references, yet “too heavy”: TNT publicity at the time described Hendricks as “the keeper of Memphis.”
Hendricks, Lee said, “should be less of a martyr, carrying the weight of the city on his shoulders, and more well-rounded, laid-back — a little bit more human. More of a dude, less of a precious Elvis thing.”
Season Two of “Memphis Beat” immediately tries to lay to rest some misconceptions about the character. In the first episode, an Internal Affairs officer (Beau Garrett) new to Memphis says: “I heard you were an Elvis impersonator.” Responds Hendricks: “I just admire the man. I play lots of people’s songs.”
Season Two will contain at least one truly authentic Presley connection, however. Red West, who was a longtime member of Presley’s “Memphis Mafia,” appears in a particularly dramatic episode as the cancer-stricken drug addict who killed Hendricks’ father. “I have a great, long scene where I try to explain to him how sorry I am,” West said.
