R.J. Decker Review: Scott Speedman's Florida PI Sticks the Landing

It almost didn't make it.

A few weeks ago, R.J. Decker was on the bubble. Scott Speedman's name was carrying internal goodwill at ABC, the show had survived a wobbly pilot that required reshoots, and the ratings were solid enough but never spiking. Then the May 8 renewal announcement landed and the picture changed. R.J. Decker is back for Season 2, the freshman drama is the last ABC scripted series to get the green light for 2026-27, and the bigger story is that the show earned the renewal across nine episodes that started rough and ended strong.

The verdict: this is the kind of procedural network TV doesn't make often enough anymore. A specific tone, a charismatic lead, a sense of place. It's not breaking new ground. It's not trying to. What it does, it does well.

The Premise, the Place, the Pilot

R.J. Decker (Speedman) was a newspaper photographer who got two years in prison for assault. The assault was on the son of a senator, which sealed his fate. The pilot opens with R.J. in the back of a car with the woman who's about to testify against him, Emilia "Emi" Ochoa (Jaina Lee Ortiz), the lawyer who happens to be the victim's relative. It's not a great look. He goes to prison.

When we pick up two years later, R.J. is a private investigator in South Florida. His ex Catherine Delacroix (Adelaide Clemens) is a journalist married to Detective Melody "Mel" Abreu (Bevin Bru). His best friend and former cellmate is Aloysius "Wish" Aiken (Kevin Rankin). Emi has somehow re-entered his orbit as a shadowy benefactor with her own agenda. Cases range, per the official logline, from "slightly odd to outright bizarre."

That last part is the show's bet. R.J. Decker is based on Carl Hiaasen's 1987 novel Double Whammy, but the bigger Hiaasen DNA running through the show is the tone. Showrunner Rob Doherty (Elementary) has called it "a love letter to Floridian weirdness." Bass-fishing tournaments with criminal undercurrents. Reality TV con artists. Wildlife in the wrong place. The Florida that exists in headlines as "Florida Man." The show takes this seriously without taking it seriously, which is exactly the line a Hiaasen adaptation has to walk.

The pilot was unsteady. Reshoots and a recasting didn't help the rhythm. But by Episode 3 the show had found the groove, and by the back half it was firing.

What Works

Speedman is the reason the show works. He's playing R.J. as exhausted-but-charming, a guy who's been around the block a few times and isn't bothered by any of it anymore. The performance has the looseness of an actor who knows he can fall back on charm but the discipline of someone who isn't using it as a crutch. R.J. is in scenes where he could be the smartest guy in the room or the dumbest guy in the room, and Speedman plays it as if he doesn't really care which it is. That's the right call for a Hiaasen protagonist.

Jaina Lee Ortiz is the real wildcard. Emi is positioned as the "is she ally or threat" engine of the season, and Ortiz plays both possibilities at once. Some episodes she's clearly helping R.J. Other episodes she's clearly setting him up. The show is smart enough not to resolve which one she really is, which gives the back half of the season some real charge.

The Catherine/Mel/R.J. dynamic is the show's sneaky strength. R.J.'s ex and her wife as part of his core support system is a fresh wrinkle for a procedural. There's history between R.J. and Catherine, there's professional friction with Mel because she's a cop and he's not exactly clean, but the three of them function like an actual found-family unit. Clemens and Bru sell it.

Kevin Rankin's Wish is the comic relief, and he's also the show's "this is Florida" engine. He's the one who knows where the alligator is, who owes whom, what the local color is. Useful character, well played.

The cases-of-the-week have a sense of humor. A bass-fishing tournament. A reality-TV-adjacent murder. A guy who fakes his own kidnapping. The plotting isn't trying to be Better Call Saul. It's trying to be a fun hour, and it lands.

What Doesn't

The pilot is the worst episode. If you bounced off it in early March, you're not crazy. Reshoots-after-recasting energy is hard to hide, and the first hour spends too much time on backstory it could have trickled in.

The show occasionally gets too cute with its weirdness. There's a Florida-quirky-for-the-sake-of-Florida-quirky moment in Episode 4 that feels more like a writers room reference than an actual joke. The show is better when the weirdness is grounded, when it's a thing that could happen in this place, not when it's a thing the writers wish would happen in this place.

The finale's big swing, the murder of Emi's father Victor Ochoa (David Zayas guest starring), is effective but it's also a procedural cliffhanger that exists primarily to set up Season 2. It works. It's not surprising.

Ratings Reality Check

R.J. Decker averaged a 0.18 rating in the 18-49 demo and 3.2 million viewers across its first season. That's the lowest-rated scripted series on ABC in the demo and seventh in overall viewers. The premiere drew 11.64 million across multi-day viewing, but the sustained audience stayed modest. The renewal happened because Speedman has industry juice and ABC was committed to renewing its full scripted slate, not because R.J. Decker is breaking out.

That's actually fine. Not every show needs to be a phenomenon. Some shows just need to be good company.

So Is It Worth Watching?

Yes, with one caveat. Skip the pilot. Or push through the pilot. Either works. By Episode 3 the show is what it's going to be, and what it's going to be is a charming Florida-noir procedural with one of the more reliably watchable performances on network TV right now.

If you liked Justified and the way that show treated Kentucky as a character, there's a similar instinct at work here with Florida. R.J. Decker is less violent and less prestige, but the place-as-character instinct is the same.

What's Coming

Season 2 is officially renewed. Emi's father is dead, and that mystery is the engine going into next season. Speedman, Ortiz, Bru, Rankin, and Clemens are all expected back. Rob Doherty stays on as showrunner. ABC has not yet announced a premiere date.

Where to Watch

R.J. Decker airs Tuesdays on ABC, with next-day streaming on Hulu. Season 2 is renewed but no premiere date has been announced.