Early in The CW’s Good Cop/Bad Cop, police chief Hank Hickman (Clancy Brown) and his daughter, detective Lou (Leighton Meester), have a disagreement about what the department’s top priority ought to be. She, reasonably, believes it should be protecting the community by investigating crimes. Hank, however, has other ideas.

“The country is falling apart. People need a place where they feel safe,” he says. To him, what matters is that they’re able to make the community think they’re secure: “Belief is the most important thing we can give them.” And while Lou is correct in every practical real-world sense, it’s Hank who has his own series exactly right.

The country does seem like it’s falling apart. We do need a place to feel safe. And a thoroughly charming procedural on The CW might be as good a way as any to indulge in that fantasy — even if it is,...