Tonight's episode of The Good Guys was supposed to air a month ago when we actually got "Broken Door Theory" and I suppose I can see why Fox decided to air it tonight instead. So far, "Broken Door Theory" is the weakest episode of the series, while "Small Rooms" was pretty entertaining, if not a little predictable for those who have been following the show from the start. A big part of tonight's episode hinged on viewers caring about Assistant D.A. Liz Traynor and appreciating her complicated relationship with Jack. While we can't really say that the way Jack and Liz interact has changed much since the pilot, there have been a few small developments in their currently off romance that the closing shot of "Small Rooms" makes a lot more sense at this point in the series than it would have three episodes in. Ostensibly the purpose of a network rearranging the order in which episodes are aired is to strategically appeal to viewers and make the story more accessible. This is disastrous for more serialized shows but it can do a real service to shows like The Good Guys that don't seem to have a firm grasp on their own strengths.

"Small Rooms" finds Stark so bored by his assigned clerical work in the evidence locker that he jumps at the chance to re-open a cold case by planting a tagged gun at the scene of a petty crime. Liz's mother, who still holds out hope that Jack and Liz will rekindle their romance, asks Jack to investigate the theft of her pitifully ugly car. It doesn't take long for us to find out that the car was just stolen by a couple of bored teenagers, just as Jack predicted, but Stark's evidence-planting antics end up putting the Traynor ladies in the path of two arms-dealing brothers in the middle of a major deal with Guatemalan guerrillas.

As I've said in previous reviews, The Good Guys has a central conceit that works best when it's at least nominally believable. The comedy of errors in "Small Rooms" makes enough sense that we're allowed to sit back and enjoy the show's high points, like Jack and Stark's banter and the inevitable shootout in the third act. At its best, the domino-like plotting on The Good Guys is like watching a self-aware Rube Goldberg machine, letting us viewers in on the joke that some very dangerous crime is being thwarted by mostly unrelated, highly unlikely circumstances.

Unfortunately, one of this show's other strengths, its colorful (if comically non-threatening) villains, is mostly absent in this episode. I've personally never understood why Nick Cannon is a star. He never really upped his acting game in his post-Nickelodeon years and he's one of the least funny comic actors on the scene today. So, when he shows up in the potentially entertaining role of the youngest of three arms-dealing brothers, the character just falls flat. A more talented performer really could have coaxed something great out of that character. After all, he's the put-upon baby of the family who idolizes his dead older brother and has dreams of going legit with a kitchen fixtures business. There's so much comedy and pathos in that role and it all gets wasted on Cannon's clunky line delivery, complete lack of comic timing and inability to make any emotion believable. The Good Guys should be thriving on its guest stars and occasionally in does like with Gregg Henry in "$3.52", but perhaps it's still too low-rent to do so consistently.

Best Moment: I really liked the closing shot of a concussed Jack sleeping in Liz's lap while Stark tears down the road listening to Foghat. That's what this show is supposed to be about, right?

Notes: For the next two weeks The Good Guys will actually be airing in its original order. Let's see how that pans out.

Episode Rating: 4/5- Nick Cannon's presence really brought the episode down and I wish the shootout had been resolved in a way we haven't seen before, especially considering how young the series is. But the banter was still amusing and the domino plot worked well, so it was still a fairly decent episode.