I’ve never liked cop shows. Not even Tom Selleck’s excellent mustache, Pauly Perrette’s glorious None More Goth wardrobe on NCIS, or Katee Sackoff being Katee Sackoff on Netflix’s Longmire could keep my interest for more than an episode at most. At the end of the day, all cop shows are pretty much the same to me and 2021’s Killer Among Us is little more than an extra-long lost episode of any given cop show.

Not to be confused with A Killer Among Us (a 2012 Lifetime TV movie) or The Murderers Are Among Us (a fascinating 1946 German Trümmerfilm), this 2021 outing could not be more topical. It follows a radical right-wing serial killer (Andrew Richardson), a Black & female rookie cop (Yasha Jackson), and a Black sex worker (Imani Lewis) as their paths fatefully cross on the Fourth of July.

Vince (Richardson) is a pretty standard portrayal of an unstable right-wing militant. He has a stockpile of military-grade weapons in a secluded hideout in the woods, he frequents online forums filled with like-minded individuals, he listens to reactionary talk radio in his pickup truck, he targets Black sex workers, and he… feels kinda bad when he realizes his latest victim is only 17? What?

Here’s the inciting incident that really kicks Killer Among Us into high gear: Ricki Fennel (Lewis) is a 17-year-old who has dropped out of high school for some reason and started working street corners as a prostitute so she can buy drugs. When she tries to pick up Vince, he’s all set to murder her for being a “parasite” who “made her choice” and deserves to die for it, until he finds her student ID. Suddenly, this hardened reactionary who’s made a habit of murdering Black sex workers seems to develop a conscience.

Ricki isn’t completely on her own, though. “Woke cop” Alisha (Jackson) sees Vince abduct Ricki and knows she has to act. Though she’s off duty and has plans with her husband, she blows him off to rush back to the station and rally the rest of the PD. Most of them try to laugh her off as being overcautious, but luckily White Ally Sergeant Corbucci (Bruce MacVittie) is ready to help! He and Alisha work tirelessly to try and rescue Ricki while the viewer learns of Vince’s motivator for why he suddenly felt bad and it’s supposed to mean something, I guess.

On a technical level, Killer Among Us is fine. Strong performances are given by all the actors and the pacing is pretty good. Personally, I just don’t think in a time when I see police brutality and white supremacist violence claiming the lives of people of color almost every week that a movie about how “sometimes, white supremacist serial killers have feelings too!” is what I need right now.