History Series / Copper

Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones) is an [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora Irish immigrant]] living in the [[WretchedHive Five Points]] neighborhood of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity during the 1860s. He returns from fighting in the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar to find that his daughter is dead and his wife has disappeared. Robert Morehouse, Corcoran's former commanding officer, uses his family's connections to arrange for Corcoran to be appointed a detective in the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops New York Police Department]].

Kevin Corcoran is an [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora Irish immigrant]] living in the [[WretchedHive Five Points]] neighborhood of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity during the 1860s. He returns from fighting in the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar to find that his daughter is dead and his wife has disappeared. Robert Morehouse, Corcoran's former commanding officer, uses his family's connections to arrange for Corcoran to be appointed a detective in the [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops New York Police Department]].

* InfantImmortality: Averted. Corcoran's daughter was only six when she died. In the first episode, Corcoran investigates a child's murder and rape.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Freeman gets a ''fantastic'' one when he confronts the man who to beat the hell out of him for breaking his shop window[[note]]The man in question was an Anglo-Saxon who'd been belittling and insulting Sarah and her mother[[/note]].
-->''"You're right. I am an animal. As are you. We all are. Like most animals, we are filled with base desires: hunger, lust, aggression, violence, dominance. I've wrestled with the primal nature inside of me, not wanting to validate others' fears! [...] You are [afraid of me]. And you should be. Because I've suffered the ire of men like you every DAY OF MY LIFE! And I've accepted insult and injury, all with the hope that one day I would be seen as equal. But I've realized that I'm ''not'' your equal. I'm smarter than you, and I'm stronger than you, and I'm through concerning myself with the growls of simple-minded mangy little dogs. ''*holds up a can of ointment*'' Golden Seal Salve. Put it on your wound to prevent infection. Or don't, and let it rot. I honestly couldn't give a shit."''

* HenpeckedHusband: O’Brien is apparently this, but his wife never appears onscreen.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Winfred Haverford cheats on his wife by going to a brothel and [[spoiler: raping little girls.]]
** [[spoiler:Ellen Corcoran was sleeping with Francis Maguire while Corcoran was away.]]
** Corcoran is technically still married but with his wife disappeared and presumed dead he has hooked up with Eve Heissen. He has no problem stepping out on Eve with [[spoiler: Molly and later Elisabeth Harrford]]
** An abortionist's ledger is filled with the names of married men who paid for their mistresses' abortions
** A married dentist regularly accepted sexual favours from poor women as payment for dental work. In turn his wife [[spoiler: had a long running affair with the butcher who lived on the floor below them]].

** Keating speech to the members of The Druids seems to present him as a anarchistic revolutionary who organized the counterfeiting ring as a way to 'stick it to the Man' and address some of the injustice of life in Five Points. Then he has a man start singing just so he can see what happens when he cuts the man's throat mid-song.

[[ScrewedByTheNetwork The show was cancelled on September 22, 2013.]]

** BroadStrokes: At least one interview has stated that their unofficial motto is [[http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/06/copper-season-2-history-is-our-guide-not-our-master.html "History is our guide, not our master."]] They're following history closely, but don't treat it as the SeriousBusiness a lot of Period Pieces do (One example is Eva wearing a man's hat, apparently something of a ThrowItIn by Franka Potente.)

Kevin Corcoran is an [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora Irish immigrant]] living in the [[WretchedHive Five Points]] neighborhood of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity during the 1860s. He returns from fighting in the UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar to find that his daughter is dead and his wife has disappeared. Robert Morehouse, Corcoran's former commanding officer, uses his family's connections to arrange for Corcoran to be appointed a detective in the [[NewYorkCityCops New York Police Department]].

* {{Badass}}: Corcoran and his partners.

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* GenreSavvy: A thief breaks into a house and finds a dead child inside. He realizes that the crime will be blamed on him so he goes straight to the docks and signs up on the next ship to leave town. When he returns more than a year later, he is caught by Corcoran and is smart enough not to try and lie about what happened. Corcoran [[spoiler: believes his story and lets him go]].

->''[[{{Tagline}} In 1864, he was New York's Finest.]]''

* AnswerCut: Corcoran asked Robert [[spoiler:where Kennedy was when they nabbed the second shipment of Greek Fire.]] Cut to [[spoiler:Kennedy in a lab in New York filled with Greek Fire they produced there doing a monologue about how the second shipment was a decoy.]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Mostly avoided but although there was a Confederate arson plot against New York it did not involve Greek Fire for the simple reason that we ''still'' don't know how it was made.

* KillItWithFire: A group of Confederate agents plan use a form of Greek Fire to burn down New York City.

* NitroExpress: Robert Morehouse helps Kennedy transport a wagon full of Greek Fire that will explode if one of the barrels has a leak and any of the liquid is exposed to air. [[spoiler: Of course, his actual plan is to sabotage the wagon before it reaches New York so the Greek Fire is destroyed in the explosion.]]

** Adam, the telegraph operator, is present during most of the business meetings Morehouse Sr. has in his office. The Morehouse family must trust him explicitly when it comes to their financial activities. Significantly, Robert asks him to leave the room when Corcoran comes to discuss [[spoiler: the Greek Fire]].

** Even disregarding the more blatant [[DirtyCop corruption of the police force]], they just don't deal with investigations the way a modern audience expects. For example, beating people up seems to be a legitimate means of gathering evidence, and the first thing to do after finding a dead body is to [[PrincessBride look through his pockets for money.]]