The Details

Copper

Sundays, 10 p.m., BBC America.

BBC America is angling to get in on the prestige-drama action with its first original scripted series, a period piece set in New York City in 1864. Like HBO’s Boardwalk Empire or AMC’s Hell on Wheels, Copper aims to combine historical detail with a modern focus on sex and violence, but its characters are all bluster and no depth. The look at the police department in an emerging urban center combines procedural elements with a fairly rote story about corruption and isn’t able to build a fully immersive world. It has the feel of a weighty, important drama, but not the impact.