Scott Speedman stars in R.J. Decker.

Disney/Dana Hawley

Scott Speedman, who you may know as Dr. Nick Marsh from Grey’s Anatomy or the Underworld films, and who I know from the horror film The Strangers, is the star of R.J. Decker, the new quirky detective series based on the Carl Hiaasen novel Double Whammy.

The hour-long drama stars Speedman as, you guessed it, R.J. Decker. Here, Speedman steps into his best disheveled self, playing a defamed newspaper photographer-turned-ex-con who forges a new life in South Florida as a private investigator. Technically, the show is a procedural that follows Decker as he investigates offbeat cases each week. Thanks to the writing, performances and production style, the series stands out from other broadcast primetime fare.

To that point, my first thought when watching the pilot episode was that it felt like a combination of Magnum P.I.…