Battle Creek (TV series)

Battle Creek
Genre Comedy-drama
Created by
Starring
Composer(s) John Ottman
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 8
Production
Executive producer(s)
Location(s) Battle Creek, Michigan
Camera setup Single
Running time 42 minutes
Production company(s)
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run March 1, 2015 – present

Battle Creek is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on CBS on March 1, 2015.[1] Starring Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters, the show follows the mismatched partnership of a police detective and FBI agent in Battle Creek, Michigan.

The season is set to conclude on May 24, 2015.[2]

Cast

Recurring

Guest

Episodes

No. Title Directed by Written by Original air date U.S. viewers
(million)
1"The Battle Creek Way"Bryan SingerDavid Shore & Vince GilliganMarch 1, 20157.92[6]
Detective Russ Agnew laments his police department's lack of funding and broken-down equipment, but it looks like help is on the way. FBI Special Agent Milt Chamberlain is coming to town to open a field office, as it appears his former field office in Detroit couldn't wait to get rid of him. Chamberlain arrives just in time for one of the biggest crimes to hit the mid-sized Michigan city: a double-homicide that might be connected to the local meth trade.
2"Syruptitious"Andrew BernsteinRussel Friend & Garrett LernerMarch 8, 20156.93[7]
Russ investigates the murder of a local maple syrup maker, and is surprised to learn it may have something to do with being "muscled out" by a larger syrup manufacturer. But Russ gets overzealous and interviews a suspect without the man's lawyer present, causing Commander Guziewicz to place him on suspension. Milt finds a way to keep Russ involved in the case by hiring him as an FBI consultant. While the two investigate the syrup angle, Holly sees signs that the victim's spouse was likely abused, revealing another possible motive. Elsewhere, Detective White receives phony pot from a local medical marijuana dealer. In order to charge the dealer with fraud, White has to reluctantly reveal to Guziewicz that he uses marijuana to treat migraines.
3"Man’s Best Friend"Oz ScottThomas L. MoranMarch 15, 20156.79[8]
After Milt, Russ and Fontanelle make a presentation at an elementary school, Fontanelle's drug-sniffing dog finds a kilo of heroin in a student's backpack. The detectives first investigate a Battle Creek police officer who is the girl's uncle, but he says he would never do that to his niece and they find no evidence of drug dealing in the officer's house. The investigation turns to a Dominican group that deals heroin, after Fontanelle notices them fleeing from cops and tossing a pack of heroin on a roof. Knowing this might put the young girl in danger, Milt and Russ try to get her to tell them how she got the heroin, but she refuses to say. Holly gets an idea that shows the heroin was stolen from an evidence room and replaced with a pack of baking soda, and Guziewicz interviews the girl's uncle again, correctly surmising he has a gambling problem. Meanwhile, Detective Jacocks helps Russ get to the root of why Milt was reassigned from Detroit to Battle Creek.
4"Heirlooms"Dan SackheimDavid ShoreMarch 22, 20156.05[9]
Russ and Milt investigate the death of a local woman who had been a drug addict and prostitute, but who had apparently cleaned up recently in an attempt to reconnect with her son. The boy has been raised by the woman's half-sister, who becomes a suspect when the team learns she was trying to prevent him from seeing his blood mother. Another suspect emerges, a mysterious older "John" whom the boy recognizes from a photo on the wall of a center that holds meetings for recovering addicts. Russ and Milt visit the man's home, only to find out from his two children living there that he passed away a short time ago. It turns out the man wasn't a John, but instead a wealthy and successful businessman who is the real father of the deceased woman. The team revisits the man's legitmate children again, this time to arrest them as murder suspects who were trying to keep a portion of their father's fortune from going to the newly-discovered third child. Meanwhile, Russ offers some personal information to Milt, namely that he's in love with Holly, in hopes of getting Milt to open up about his personal life.
5"Old Flames"Richard J. LewisEsta SpaldingMarch 29, 20156.02[10]
During a bachelor party, the detectives get a call that Commander Guziewicz's house has gone up in flames. Russ finds glass from a window on the inside of the house, suggesting someone broke in and set the fire deliberately. As Russ, Milt and the other detectives invesitgate, they are surprised to find that their boss has had 17 boyfriends over the last few years, and that she has a pattern of dating a guy for a while and then ending the relationship with no explanation. This reveals several suspects, including a neighbor who made the 911 call for the fire. Fontanelle also finds that Guziewicz's last fling was with a contractor who has recently worked on at least two other burned homes. They then consider a suspect whom Guziewicz put away 12 years ago that just got out of prison. Lastly, they find that Guziewicz's estranged son, who was thought to be in a rehab facility in Florida, is actually back in town and staying in a Battle Creek halfway house. Ultimately, the cause of the Commander's house fire is found to be a romantic gesture-gone-bad, attributed to the neighbor who made the 911 call. Meanwhile, Holly receives a bouquet of flowers from an anonymous source, and Russ fears he may have called to send them while drunk at the bachelor party.
6"Cereal Killer"Craig ZiskLindsay Jewett SturmanApril 5, 20155.58[11]
While making a speech to kick off the city's annual "Breakfast Day" celebration, Mayor Scooter Hardy is shot at multiple times, but the first bullet hits a young man in a cougar mascot suit who had just walked in front of the mayor. The gun is found to have been triggered remotely via cell phone. Russ says this makes the suspect list so vast, they need to use old-fashioned detective work and interview people, but Milt is able to use technology to triangulate the call to within a 2,000-square foot area that fortunately is also covered by video cameras. Hardy is kidnapped from his hospital bed after a suspect, a known drug dealer, emerges. The detectives find Hardy smoking crack in an apartment, apparently having set up the kidnapping himself. The team then thinks that the mascot was the real target, when one of the people in the video footage is revealed to be a jealous classmate who feels he had earned the mascot job. This appears to be validated when the young man in the mascot suit is shot at again while leaving the hospital. The investigation appears to be a dead end, when Russ gets an idea: the cell phone call that triggered the gun may not have gone through right away. He has Milt back up the surveillance footage of the 2,000-square foot area by 15 seconds, and they see that Mayor Hardy's brother/chief of staff Darrel (Peter Jacobson) is using a cell phone. Elsewhere, Fontanelle realizes he forgot to drop off Funkhauser's deposit check for his fiancee's preferred wedding venue months ago, and he scrambles to make things right without Funkhauser knowing.
7"Mama's Boy"Dan AttiasMarqui JacksonApril 12, 20156.48[12]
The BCPD investigates an apparent murder when severed foot is found washed up on a lakeshore. Russ recognizes the shoe on the foot is a knock-off Nike, stating that those were the only shoes his con artist/counterfeiter mother gave him to wear when he was growing up. To investigate the con angle, Milt convinces a reluctant Russ that they must let his mother, Constance (Candace Bergen), out of jail. The crew follows leads that include Constance's former connection/lover Henry, as well as the manager of a cell phone store who may have been in on a con that Constance was part of. As Det. Niblet watches video footage of a months-ago break in at a storage facility and identifies a person as the deceased man, Constance recognizes him as Arnold Mathis, her accomplice in the cell phone con. Constance tells Russ and the team that the con cost the cell store one million dollars, but Mathis' father, a con artist-turned-priest, says it was two million. This leads Russ to believe his mom is lying and has hid the other million dollars somewhere, and that she may also be the killer. While the trail eventually leads to Henry being the killer, Russ sees that Constance did in fact have the million dollars hidden. Before going back to jail, Constance lets Holly in on a ruse she played with a reporter to test how far she would go to defend Russ. She says Holly passed the test, and Holly then proclaims that she and Russ are not together, to which Constance says, "you should be." Constance also tells Russ to watch out for Milt, saying, "I don't trust him."
8"Old Wounds"Randy ZiskRussel Friend and Garrett LernerApril 26, 20156.14[13]
9"Gingerbread Man"[14]Eriq LaSalleThomas L MoranMay 3, 2015
10"Stockholm"[15]Allison Liddi-BrownDavid ShoreMay 10, 2015
11"The Hand-Off"[16]Colin BuckseyEsta Spalding and Lindsay Jewett SturmanMay 17, 2015
12"Homecoming"[17]James RodayDanny WeissMay 17, 2015
13"Sympathy for the Devil"[18]TBATBAMay 24, 2015

Development and production

In September 2013, Sony Pictures Television announced that it struck a deal with CBS to produce a new television series created by Vince Gilligan entitled Battle Creek based on a script written by Gilligan ten years prior. Despite the name, establishing shots and location shots were not shot in Battle Creek, Michigan. However most of the scenes in the opening credits were filmed in Battle Creek. The main actors visited Battle Creek, Michigan in the summer of 2014 to get a feel of the location, people, and especially the police department. [19] CBS has ordered thirteen episodes, all of which it has guaranteed to air.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Kondolojy, Amanda (December 5, 2014). "CBS Announces March Premiere Dates for 'Battle Creek' and 'CSI: Cyber'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  2. ↑ Bibel, Sara (April 1, 2015). "CBS Announces Season Finale Dates for 'The Big Bang Theory', 'NCIS' & More; 'Stalker' Returns May 4". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Staff (May 14, 2014). "CBS Announces Its 2014-2015 Primetime Schedule" (Press release). The Futon Critic. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  4. ↑ Damon Herriman profile, hollywoodreporter.com; accessed March 15, 2015.
  5. ↑ Patton Oswalt in Battle Creek, tvguide.com; accessed March 15, 2015.
  6. ↑ Bibel, Sara (March 3, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'The Last Man on Earth' & 'Dateline' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kondolojy, Amanda (March 10, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'The Last Man on Earth', 'Bob's Burgers', 'Family Guy', 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' & 'Revenge' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  8. ↑ Bibel, Sara (March 17, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'The Last Man in Earth', 'Secrets & Lies', 'Battle Creek' & '60 Minutes' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. ↑ Kondolojy, Amanda (March 24, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'The Last Man on Earth' & 'Once Upon a Time' Adjusted Up; '60 Minutes' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  10. ↑ Bibel, Sara (March 31, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Madam Secretary', 'The Good Wife' & '60 Minutes' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  11. ↑ Kondolojy, Amanda (April 7, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: '60 Minutes' Adjusted Up; 'American Odyssey' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  12. ↑ Bibel, Sara (April 14, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'America's Funniest Home Videos' Adjusted Up; 'Madam Secretary', 'The Good Wife' & '60 Minutes' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ Bibel, Sara (April 28, 2015). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Family Guy' Adjusted Up; No Adjustments to 'Once Upon A Time'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  14. ↑ "(#109) "Gingerbread Man"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  15. ↑ "(#110) "Stockholm"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  16. ↑ "(#111) "The Hand-Off"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  17. ↑ "(#112) "Homecoming"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Shows A-Z - battle creek on cbs". The Futon Critic. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Carter, Bill (September 25, 2013). "'Breaking Bad' Creator Gilligan in Deal for CBS Show, 'Battle Creek'". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2013.

External links