Freeman, being black, also allows the series to explore race in the north during the Civil War. And, with the help of Elizabeth and Corcoran's war buddy, the incredibly wealthy Robert Morehouse (Kyle Schmid), the show gets to explore differing classes. They even have a different Irish cop, Francis Maguire (Kevin Ryan), so we can get an outside perspective on what it means to be a poor Irish cop.
If there is one part of the show that is troublesome, it is the series' desire to get every possible aspect of 1864 New York involved. It feels as though an overt decision was made to show as many parts of society as possible and then characters were created in order to fit the necessary roles, and that rings false even if little else does. The problem isn't with the stories each person from their respective group undergoes—those feel real enough—it is with the fact that the show has opted to be so incredibly heterogeneous.
Copper, actually, mainly overcomes this issue with the strength of the writing and the acting. As stated, you're going to care about the characters and you're going to be engrossed in the stories. It will trouble you that the stories are happening, but it's much more one of those things that you keep in the back of your head than one that bothers you every single second of the show.
The production values, on the whole, tend to be tremendous. It can be hard for a television series to do period well, but Copper is nearly completely successful with it. From great outfits to varying locations, the show looks beautiful (and looks beautiful on Blu-ray). One of the biggest issues is with what is apparently green screen work that just doesn't feel anywhere near as realistic. Whether that is a byproduct of the blu-ray transfer or this being done on a television budget, not a film one, isn't wholly clear, but with it being a new series, it seems more likely to be a budget/time issue than a transfer one. Other than that, the Blu-ray really shows the detail work well, offering up plenty of different locales and states of decrepitude, and having them all look great even if they look horrible. The DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack is good for a television show. It isn't as active or involving as a movie, but one is not wholly unaware of the surrounds and everything is well-leveled. It is a new TV show come to Blu-ray and you're not going to have any complaints even if you're not wowed by anything but the production values.
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