Is Wild Cards the Next Castle? Grade The CW’s Sexy New Crime Procedural

You know that TV show where a by-the-books detective gets forced into working with a totally unqualified sidekick, developing a will they/won’t they dynamic along the way?

Yes, we’re describing an entire genre of shows, but we’re also specifically referring to The CW’s Wild Cards, a new crime procedural starring Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey’s Anatomy) as Detective Cole Ellis and Vanessa Morgan (Riverdale) as Max Mitchell, the scrappy conwoman with whom he’s assigned to solve cases for reasons that only make sense because, well, it’s television.

Lest you question Wild Cards‘ self-awareness, however, allow us to quote a line from Max to Cole in Wednesday’s series premiere: “Damn, that was amazing. We’re like Bones and that dude from Buffy, or Castle and that hot girl.” (One thing’s for sure, Max would definitely have been a TVLine reader when those shows were on the air.)

Wild Cards leans even further into those tropes during the premiere’s murder mystery, which requires Max and Cole to pose as a couple and — you guessed it — even share a “fake” kiss that one of them appears to enjoy more than the other.

There’s also a larger quandary at the heart of this case-of-the-week procedural: Can Cole really trust Max? The premiere ends with Max visiting her incarcerated father (Beverly Hills, 90210‘s Jason Priestley of all people!) to ease his concerns about her working with a cop. “Don’t worry,” she tells him. “This is going to get us both what we want.”

Max’s father, we assume, is hoping for an early release, but does Max have plans of her own? Furthermore, what’s the full story behind Cole’s suspension? And with all due respect to his late brother, what kind of a psycho names their cat Mark?!

Will you check back in with these Wild Cards next week, or are you removing yourself from this case? Grade the premiere and weigh in via our polls below, then drop a comment with your full review of the new CW series.