Cover of Maria Bello

If you’re a TV critic, you don’t need to have the instincts of a homicide detective to see a much-talked about new fall series like NBC’s “Prime Suspect.”
The network sends out the pilots of most of its fall shows in July, giving critics and bloggers (yes, bloggers get equal access) something to watch on weeknights if they want to avoid “America’s Got Talent,” “The Bachelorette,” “Big Brother 113” and all the mind-numbing nonsense that airs in the summer.
I’ve watched “Prime Suspect,” the Americanized version of the career-defining British series starring Helen Mirren that premiered 20 years ago and still plays on WNED-TV, twice.
I figured the adaptation of Lynda LaPlante’s British series deserved a second look even before another critic — apparently unable to find a phone to ask for a copy — wrote about it “sight unseen.”
“Prime Suspect” got much more respect from me than another NBC series written about locally sight unseen, “The Playboy Club.” I only watched “Playboy” once because that’s all the viewing that a pilot that makes sex seem boring deserves.
I also was not impressed by my initial look at “Prime Suspect,” which stars Maria Bello (see above) as a tough female homicide detective, Jane Timoney, trying to gain respect from the all- boys club in the Homicide Squad of the New York Police Department run by a guy who is more open-minded (played by Aidan Quinn) than his subordinates.
Now I’ve been a fan of Bello for some time. She first got my attention joining the cast of “ER,” then bolting to become a movie star. She got some good movie roles, but stardom never came so she is back on TV wearing a variety of stylish hats in a series that seems to have forgotten how much women have gained since Mirren’s version (she was called Jane Tennison) of “Prime Suspect” began airing.
Male detectives may not love working with females but they’ve learned to live with it. The NBC pilot would have looked out-dated in 1996, when LaPlante and Buffalo writer-producer Tom Fontana combined on a failed pilot, “The Prosecutors,” about two tough women starring Michelle Forbes and Stockard Channing.
The men in the homicide squad in the Americanized version of “PS” should all be sentenced to watching Fontana’s Homicide,” “The Wire,” “NYPD Blue,” “The Closer,” “Hill Street Blues,” all the “CSIs,” “NCISs” and “Law & Orders” to see how much respect female cops and prosecutors have gained in 20- 25 years.
According to some of my former TV critic colleagues who attended a press conference in Los Angeles for Bello’s show, the writers apparently realize they have overdone the sexist angle in the pilot and promise it will be toned down. Additionally, it was recently announced that Broadway actress Elizabeth Rodriguez has joined the cast to play another detective. Hopefully, that will give Jane someone to bond with or at least complain to about the jerks she is working with.
She wins most of her battles, though she eventually is beaten to a pulp by one criminal she outruns before being saved by a male co-worker after Jane shows one flaw involving physical limitations.
Starting with an opening scene in which Jane intimidates a New York cabbie who initially refuses to stop smoking, the writers have made Timoney a bit too tough and not vulnerable enough to be sympathetic until one brief scene near the end.
She is ambitious to an irritating degree even when she proves to be the smartest person in the male-dominated room, which is all the time.
She is mad at the world, provoking fights with her boss, her boyfriend, his ex-wife and the condescending Neanderthals she works with that belittle her and speak to her through conversations with each other.
Her support group includes her father (Peter Gerety of “Homicide”), her boyfriend and the only male NYPD detective who doesn’t need to be immediately sent off to a gender equality class.
Clearly, the series is relying on the idea that Bello deserves to be a TV star and the way of making her one is to make her less glamorous and make her character the smartest in a room full of criminals and fellow detectives who are criminally sexist.
This formula of having women characters stronger and smarter than men has worked best on cable, which is where “Prime Suspect” probably belongs. I wish HBO, Showtime or even FX had commissioned it.
Sight seen, NBC’s “Prime Suspect” needs some work. To succeed, its writers should enter the 21st Century and worry less in future episodes about making Jane tough and more about making her a little more sympathetic and vulnerable.
pergament@msn.com

Be Sociable, Share!

•