s a child, Kate Benson (Lee) knew something was lurking in the darkness outside her window. No one believed her, of course. However, years later as a street cop, she still knows something lurks in the shadows. Not surprisingly, her Chicago Police Department superiors don't appreciate her tales of monsters and strange events.
One day, Kate notices a child walk into a deserted building. She follows the girl to find a hooded creature coming after them. She pushes the girl into an empty room ready to do battle with the monster, but her bullets bounce off it. A man comes up behind her with a weapon unlike anything she's ever seen before and blows the creature into a thousand pieces. However, before Kate can get to her, the little girl is kidnapped by another one of the creatures. When the mysterious man takes off, she's left with another tall tale to tell.
Her superiors are not amused, and Kate ends up getting suspended. On her way to her car, she finds the mysterious man waiting for her. She discovers he's a Chicago cop named Nick O'Malley (Landes), assigned to a something called Special Unit 2. Nick takes her to the Unit's headquarters, where she's temporarily assigned to the Unit.
Twelve people are missing and the culprit appears to be a creature they call a Link. A Link is the missing link between man and beast, a malicious, paranormal species made up of all the monsters from every child's nightmare, except vampires. The Link that Kate met up with was a gargoyle. Every 17 years, the carnivorous creatures have a mass hatching of their eggs and gather humans to feed to their newborns. If Nick and Kate don't stop the hatching, the newborn gargoyles will eat the captives and then descend on the city of Chicago. However, Kate discovers that saving Chicago may be a snap compared to dealing with her volatile new partner.
Light laughs, heavy chemistry
Special Unit 2 is a comedy/action series that wants to mine some of the Men In Black territory. It never reaches that level, mainly because it's not as funny as it could be and there is only one real creature featured in the season premiere.
Still, all in all, the opening episode shows promise, primarily because of the chemistry between Landes, who plays the sarcastic Nick, and Danny Woodburn, who plays Carl. In fact, Woodburn is terrifically cast as Special Unit 2's informant Link, a gnome who has a compulsive armed robbery habit he doesn't really want to kick. The rest of the cast is fairly strong and their characters should click over time.
Overall, the production values are okay, but the special-effects budget feels thin. It would have been fun to see lots of creatures, perhaps in holding cells. Unfortunately, the only real monsters in the premiere were the gargoyles, and while they were well done, it doesn't lead the viewer to believe Chicago is teaming with Links.
Time will tell whether this series can build on its premise into a funny monster mash. However, time may not be something this series has. UPN hasn't shown a lot of faith in Special Unit 2 and has ordered only six episodes. Still, its Wednesday timeslot before the final episodes of Voyager may give Special a bit of a boost and allow it to capitalize on some of the ratings.
