In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Jackie Quiñones, an agent of the US National Marine Fisheries Service, stumbles upon a young woman's murdered body on the beach. She grows obsessed with solving the murder while struggling at the same time with her addictions to alcohol and drugs. While on the trail, she's led closer to the criminal syndicate which ordered the murder and controls the local drug trade. Along with her are Junior, a friend of Jackie's and fellow addict who gets drawn into the same syndicate's employ. Detective Ray Abruzzo joins Jackie in her quest, who's certain his nemesis Frankie Cuevas Sr., an imprisoned drug kingpin, is the mastermind. However, Cuevas and his hitman Osito are intent on stopping them.
The show premiered in May 2020. A second season aired October-December of 2021. It was renewed for a third, final season which began in January 2024.
Examples:
- Accidental Murder: Renee accidentally shot Jorge in the gut while brandishing her gun at him with her finger on the trigger. He might not have died, but she's too scared to call for help because his cousin Frankie might kill her for it, and lets him die of blood loss.
- Addiction Displacement: Jackie uses her obsession with solving the murder to help stay sober.
- Addled Addict: Many characters, including one sad example with the mother of a young baby, are very seriously affected due to their alcohol or drug abuse. Jackie herself commits DUI and gets into a car accident. She gets into trouble with the law over it, threatening her career, though usually she's a Functional Addict.
- Affably Evil: Osito is a cold-blooded, seasoned hitman. He also acts kindly with Junior (although without that much emotion), saving him from being killed and trying to reassure him he'll get over helping kill someone.
- Affectionate Nickname: Jackie's dad calls her "flaca" (which is Spanish for "skinny") as a pet name.
- The Alcoholic: Jackie is one, along with a cocaine addict. She goes to a drug rehab clinic and attended meetings (initially to avoid jail time for a DUI) but soon drops out, before coming back where she gets clean.
- Amateur Sleuth: Jackie, an agent of the US Marine Fisheries Service, gets determined to solve a murder after she stumbles over a young woman's body on the beach. She's got no training in this but does a good job even so, and later becomes a professional cop.
- And the Adventure Continues: The series ended without wrapping everything up. Ray's become completely corrupt, having gotten into bed with Osito and murdered Frankie. It's unclear whether many other dirty cops who Jackie learned about will be prosecuted too. At least she seems happy and content with her life, recovering from alcoholism once again.
- Auto Erotica: Ray and Sarah have sex in his car during Season 3.
- Bait-and-Switch: Ray and Alan arrest a junkie who ends up running Alan over with his car. Ray bursts inside the interview room to scare the guy into giving up info on his dealer, ranting on how Alan is now paralyzed and "every cop in town" is going to be gunning for the guy. Overwhelmed, he faints and a disgusted Ray leaves...to pass a perfectly okay Alan who only suffered a sprained wrist in the accident.
- Bludgeoned to Death: One victim is beaten to death with an iron by Osito.
- Boom, Headshot!: Osito uses this method on more than one occasion.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Jackie is very close with her dad. So when he urges her to flirt with a dealer for drugs after using all his money, she looks quite betrayed and distraught before refusing.
- Later, she's also shaken to learn that Ray, who'd inspired her becoming a cop, is pretty corrupt himself.
- Butch Lesbian: Jackie always has masculine clothing, sports Boyish Short Hair, and notes with pride that she's a "goldstar" lesbian (meaning she's never once had sex with a man). She's very much a ladette in personality, and always tops as she's with women until Season 2, when she bottoms to Leslie once, and explains she doesn't do that usually as topping is part of being butch for her.
- By-the-Book Cop: Alan Santille, who always insists on procedures being followed.
- Can Always Spot a Cop: Ray in the garage. He's instantly made by Osito in a single glance, who says he can always tell if someone's a cop.
- The Casanova: Jackie is a lesbian one, which is seen largely in the first season as she easily picks up a number of women, which includes her ex girlfriend, for sex. In the second season though Jackie then gets into a committed relationship with one woman, Leslie.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Jackie has one when she is stressed.
- Closet Key: Leslie tells Jackie she realized she's gay due to being with her, which came as a surprise given it's at 35 after she'd been married to a man before. Jackie was the first woman she's ever been with.
- Club Kid: Provincetown not only is a Gayborhood but also a major vacation spot. Because of this, a lot of LGBT+ people (but straight folks too) like to party there. This makes it a major center of drug trafficking. Jackie, the series' protagonist, is a lesbian who's also very into partying starting out. She gets into recovery after a DUI, but goes Off the Wagon later repeatedly too.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Jackie and alcohol in one episode when she's trying to stay sober.
- Cop Killer: In Season 3 Owen gets pulled over by a highway patrol officer, shooting him from close range when he stops. He also shoots Sarah (an undercover cop in the car with him) while she's escaping, but it's not fatal. The officer bleeds out from a neck wound before medical help can arrive. His own uncle murders him because a Cop Killer Manhunt is a huge liability to his drug operation, though he's torn up about it (he'd promised his little sister, Owen's mother, to look after him), lamenting how stupid his nephew was.
- Daddy's Girl: Jackie is quite fond of her dad, and the pair have a good time together in Season 2. This means she also takes it hard when he asks her to flirt with a dealer or worse when he's after a fix.
- Detective Drama: The show is a mix of the amateur sleuth and professional version. Jackie has no training as a detective, but she investigates a murder anyway, hooking up with actual detective Ray to solve it. Later she joins the police force to solve crimes professionally.
- Dirty Cop:
- In Season 1 some of the prison guards are shown as working for Frankie, who they're supposedly guarding, while he's in jail, permitting him to use a cell phone and have sex with his girlfriend while they keep watch.
- In Season 3 Ray covers up Renee killing Jorge and helps her sell drugs for money, because he cares about her now more than his job as a cop. He then helps Renee find a witness against her who can then get bribed to disappear. Then he graduates to murdering Frankie as he's a threat for Renee.
- Also in Season 3, Jackie discovers that Detective Tom Dolan has been helping a pimp, and murdered a drug dealer who'd stolen from him. Both she and Ray are disgusted because of his crimes, since it makes them all look bad. Then it turns out half the force is in bed with the pimp, whom they protect with payment by having sex with the women he runs for free.
- Drag Queen: As Provincetown is a Gayborhood drag queens are frequently shown on the city streets. Jackie runs into some in the Season 3 premiere.
- Drives Like Crazy: Owen veers all over the road while nearly running into other cars and pedestrians as he cusses at them when driving with Osito.
- Drugs Are Bad: They are the root of all evil in season 1. People get killed by overdoses, murdered for knowledge of drug deals, mess up due to addiction or murder others in pursuing profits from selling them.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Frankie Cuevas Sr. runs a drug syndicate and orders murders from prison. He also loves his girlfriend, son and cousin though (the latter being his lieutenant too). Later he gets another girlfriend, Rachel, who absolutely adores him. She's devastated when he gets murdered.
- Eye Scream: Osito is shot in the left eye with a Gangland Drive-By attempt on his life during Season 3.
- Fair Cop: Jackie and Leslie are both good-looking women, becoming partners after the former joins the Providence police. Ray, also a detective with them starting out, is rather ruggedly handsome.
- Fanservice Extra: A lot of minor female characters are shown nude and having sex.
- Fat Bastard: Osito is obese, and also the stone-cold hitman of a drug kingpin.
- Faux Affably Evil: Frankie Cuevas Sr. always acts friendly, even to his enemies, but it's clearly false, with an obvious undercurrent of menace ever present.
- Functional Addict: Several.
- Jackie has a job, a car, a social life and her own place at the start of the series. She later gets clean.
- Junior has a car, job, social life, baby and good relationship with his dad. He overdoses accidentally after killing someone while attempting to ease the guilt with drugs.
- Gangland Drive-By:
- In the Season 3 opener a young black woman, Little Sal, is murdered by two tattooed White Gangbangers after they drive up acting like they just want information on buying drugs, then one guns her down with a headshot from the car (though after several misses). It turns out they come from a rival gang and murdered her in a fight over the local drug trade.
- Osito is shot a few episodes later by the same pair, although he's armed as well and so returns fire, killing one, but nonetheless gets gravely wounded.
- Gayborhood: There's a major LGBT+ community on Cape Cod, where Jackie lives. The show is partially centered around Provincetown, one of the major LGBT+ vacation spots, and Jackie takes full advantage of that for picking up women. In the series' intro, scenes of Provincetown include shots of an LGBT+ pride parade and other LGBT+ people on the city streets.
- Gilligan Cut: Ray says there's no way he'll let Jackie borrow his car in Season 3 after she's lost hers. Cut to her driving it in the very next scene.
- Handicapped Badass: Osito is recovering from being shot in prison after his gunfight with Jackie when Cuevas has an inmate attempt to kill him as he's heard Osito's turned informant. Despite having to use a walker, Osito fights off the inmate. He even uses his walker to beat the guy up.
- Has a Type: All of the women Jackie is shown being into are feminine (quite unlike herself). They're usually blonde and White as well. It turns out this also goes for Ray.
- Honey Trap:
- Frankie Cuevas Sr. has his girlfriend Renee act like she's willingly turned informant to Ray, and gets involved with him. Eventually she uses this to record her giving him oral sex on tape, ruining Ray's investigation, and he's suspended.
- In Season 3 Sarah, an undercover state trooper, begins seeing criminal Owen Frawley to infiltrate his uncle's syndicate.
- Housewife: In Season 3 Ray says Renee is now one, as she's stuck at home caring for their baby and her son. She isn't happy with her situation. It results in her secretly beginning work again at the strip club (although not stripping) to get out of the house.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Several of the women whom Jackie sleeps with get very loud when climaxing. Jackie does as well the one time Leslie goes down on her. One is so loud while Jackie's eating her out that it makes Jackie stare with surprise.
- Inappropriately Close Comrades: In Season 2 Jackie joins the Providence police, and soon gets involved with her partner Leslie Babcock. Leslie reveals she'd had an affair with Ray before when they were in the same unit, and it led to both their divorces once this came out. While no specific regulation gets cited against this, it's pretty clearly frowned upon.
- Inexperienced Killer: Junior, who gets pushed to carry out a hit under experienced killer Osito's supervision. He's very nervous about it and broken up afterward.
- The Informant: Ray has a few of these, and encourages his team to make use of theirs. His boss also makes him get another one when the first dies.
- Intimate Marks: Jackie has tattoos on her right breast and left side, as Season 2 shows when she wears a tanktop that reveals them.
- It Gets Easier: Osito tells Junior after the latter is traumatized by helping to kill someone that it was the same for him at first. Eventually, however, it stopped bothering him. Since he continues to kill people, the obvious message was that the same thing would happen with Junior.
- Killer Cop:
- In Season 3 Jackie discovers that Detective Tom Dolan was actually the man who'd murdered Petey over an antique bayonet. He nearly murders Jackie after she's found out too, but she saves herself through stabbing him in self-defense (he lives to get arrested). She later learns he and a couple other cops murdered a sex worker too.
- Season 3 also has Ray go off the deep end in his corruption by murdering Frankie.
- Kinky Spanking: Frankie spanks his girlfriend Rachel as part of their sexual roleplaying in Season 3, which delights her.
- The Lad-ette: Jackie is a blunt, foul-mouthed, hard-drinking promiscuous woman who's very masculine and much like her straight male friends (she's also lesbian).
- Ladykiller in Love: Jackie starts out as a lesbian casanova in Season 1. During Season 2 though she gets into a committed relationship with Leslie, though it doesn't last.
- Lingerie Scene: Jackie has multiple scenes in which she's shown wearing only her underwear (some before having sex, but not all).
- Lipstick Lesbian: Jackie's ex-girlfriend and the other women she's seen with are all feminine lesbians.
- Love Confession: Jackie texts Leslie to say she loves her after getting a topless pic Leslie's sent, in a half-joking manner, but then worries afterward that she's gone too far. Leslie doesn't text or answer her voicemail back when she explains this, worrying her further.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Frankie tells Osito to kill a witness by making her overdose. As she's an addict anyway, the police would not be likely to think it was a murder.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Jackie has sex with Leslie at the police station where they work while in the women's locker room, the code for this being asking if she can "have a moment" alone (acting like it was just for talking about something).
- Male Frontal Nudity:
- Owen pulls out his penis explicitly and jerks it to two strippers in Season 3.
- Later he sends a dick pic to Sarah, the undercover state trooper whom he's been seduced by.
- Osito later goes to a party with Charmaine in Tampa where a guy has his dick out and is openly jerking it there.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Jackie is quite butch, and her ex-girlfriend was very feminine. She also knows another female couple who have this dynamic. Later she's also with Leslie, who's more feminine as well (although the contrast isn't as strong).
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Frankie Sr. Guards allow him time to use contraband cellphones to order hits, to meet with drug dealers and have sex with Renee all in private rooms that they are guarding.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: A single young woman's murder turns out to be tied into the work of a major crime syndicate.
- Mob War: Osito goes to war with the Frawleys over drug trafficking in Season 4 when they start supplying his dealers behind his back.
- Monster Fan Girl: Frankie gets a new girlfriend/drug mule in Season 3 named Rachel, a straitlaced woman who is clearly smitten with them, despite definitely knowing that he's a ruthless drug lord. However, as he's also a very handsome and charming man it's easy to see why. Frankie clearly is just using her. She's naive and lonely enough to be seduced easily by him into this.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Jackie is shown having sex with women (though without explicit nudity) or wearing only her underwear multiple times.
- Renee is shown scantily clad and nude often. It helps that her job is a stripper. She's also shown having sex with Ray or Frankie Sr.
- Sarah in Season 3 plays this up while seducing Owen, flirting with him while in skimpy outfits, giving him a handjob, later sending a selfie of her bare breasts after he sends a dick pic. She's young and pretty, so it's easy. Ray soon falls for Sarah too, having sex with her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Junior is distraught once he helps Osito murder someone. Osito reassures him that it gets easier.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Frankie orders someone murdered for solving most of his problems.
- Never One Murder: Several occur throughout the series by the same perpetrators.
- Next Thing They Knew: Jackie is shown chatting with a number of women before it cuts to them having sex (or in one case, lying together afterward).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ray getting involved with his informant taints his whole case against Cuevas, and gets him released with the charges against him dropped. After this, he's suspended.
- No Periods, Period:
- Averted with Charmain, who uses the fact she's just got her period to have Jackie uncuff her so she can take a tampon and then escapes from custody instead.
- Ray later tells Sarah that she can get out of having sex with Owen by claiming she's on her period. She just scoffs at him, saying people their age have sex during it all the time.
- Office Romance:
- In the second season, Jackie gets involved with Leslie, her police partner. Leslie previously dated her male partner before Jackie.
- In Season 3, Ray cheats on Renne with Sarah, an undercover state trooper whom he's handling.
- Off the Wagon: Jackie, who's gotten sober at that point, goes on a drug and alcohol binge along with her dad over Thanksgiving in Season 2. Afterward she's intent on going clean once again. Then she gets high again after Leslie dumps her in the Season 2 finale. Jackie's being drug tested at work due to her past and thus has to bribe another woman for her urine sample as a result to cover it up. She goes out drinking and uses ecstasy with her friend Ray after this too.
- One of the Boys: Jackie's mostly friends with guys, and appears perfectly happy that way. She acts and dresses much like them, while being The Lad-ette and a Butch Lesbian.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Jackie is only called Jacqueline a couple times.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Osito is unhappy in Season 3 when his partners shoot down a rival dealer in a Gangland Drive-By as this can bring in too much heat from the cops to his operation. He has no problem with killing, having also previously been a hitman, but is also smart and paranoid about business.
- Professional Killer: Osito is a hitman for Frankie Cuevas Jr., a drug kingpin.
- Put on a Bus: Leslie doesn't come back after Season 2, with it explained that she has been demoted to highway patrol.
- The Queenpin:
- In Season 3 Renne starts up her own drug operation, having strippes deal cocaine to customers inside the night club she's managing.
- Rowena Castro (Lady Castro) is a major player in the drug trade of Tampa, Florida.
- Really Gets Around: Jackie frequently picks up women for casual sex and has had sex with 10 women on screen so far in the series.
- Self-Restraint: Frankie Sr. does what he wants in prison. It's pretty clear he could escape when he wants to.
- Shout-Out: Jackie brings Moby-Dick to Charmaine in Season 2, comparing the whale with Frankie whom she's desperate to bring down. Charmaine in turn notes that makes her like Ahab, who dies in the end without success in his obsessive hunt. The series is set in New Bedford, the book's setting, and they mention this too.
- Single Mom Stripper: Renee once Frankie Sr. is taken to prison and his assets are frozen. She has to start working as a stripper again for herself and her son. Though she's in a relationship with him she gets cut off and has to fend for them like this.
- Sinister Shiv:
- One is used to kill a potential confidential informant in prison.
- Osito later gets stabbed with one while imprisoned after Cuevas thinks he's going to rat him out (and he is). However, he fights off his attacker and survives.
- Osito later also has Cuevas shanked in revenge. Though he survives, it's shown in the next season Cuevas has to use a colostomy bag as a result of his injury, as other inmates and a guard all mock him for.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The theme song is "Vacation" by the Go-Gos, a bouncy melody about love used for a dark, dramatic show revolving around the drug trade along with its many victims. It was likely chosen since the show is set on Cape Cod, a vacation spot, but it doesn't fit otherwise.
- The Stoic: Osito rarely shows any kind of emotion. He mostly looks passive and utterly low key, no matter the circumstances.
- The Syndicate: Cape Cod's drug trade is run by Frankie Cuevas Jr.'s gang.
- These Hands Have Killed: Junior is quite distraught after helping to murder someone with Osito.
- Tomboyish Name: Jackie, a butch lesbian, has this. It's actually short for Jacqueline.
- Trauma Button: Renee has a painful flashback of killing Jorge in the office after she's got to get inside, having obvious lingering trauma from it.
- Tricked to Death: This is attempted with Krista by giving her extra strong drugs in the hopes she would OD. However, it doesn't work, and she's beaten to death instead.
- Turn in Your Badge:
- Jackie is suspended after she gets into a car accident while drunk. If she can't get the charges reduced, a felony conviction will cost her the job permanently. She later gets them reduced, with her suspension lifted.
- Ray's captain suspends him after it turns out that he's involved with his informant, tainting the investigation into Frankie Cuevas Sr. He's unable to lift this, and is fired from the police force.
- Jackie is forced to hand over her gun and badge after she fails a drug test in Season 3, being kicked out of the unit for it.
- Twofer Token Minority: Jackie is a woman of Dominican heritage and a Butch Lesbian. While the cast has other Latino people and lesbians, she's the only one who's both. The other lesbians are also largely feminine and mostly white.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Jackie learns from a video in Season 3 that she and a woman she'd picked up had sex in a hotel pool.
- Wall Bang Her: Ray and Sarah have sex once with her partly up against a wall.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: This is a frequent occurrence for Jackie. She goes on on alcohol and/or drug binges which result in her waking up in strange beds with strange women and no recollection of what she did over the past couple days. It takes a really bad turn in season 3 when Jackie discovers her one-night-stand's blood covered shirt in the back of her car that belongs to a woman she'd had sex with, after being unable to remember where either her car or phone were at first. It turns out that she's fine, and just had bled from her nose.
- Winning Over the Kids: Ray with Frankie Jr., Renee's child, as she becomes his informant and the pair get involved.
