CBS returns to the procedural well again for “Stalker” (10 tonight, KDKA-TV) while Fox mines the British import “Broadchurch” for the limited-series murder mystery “Gracepoint” (9 p.m. Thursday, WPGH).
Both are horrifying in their own way, but “Gracepoint” is clearly the better series.
“Stalker”
When: 10 tonight, CBS.
Starring: Dylan McDermott.
There’s really not much redeeming about “Stalker,” which, like “Criminal Minds” before it, begins its run with a woman being tortured. And, hey, that worked out just fine for the long-running “Criminal Minds,” so why not try another violence-against-women show?
Let’s not pretend “Stalker” won’t be victimization after victimization of women. The show states the stats up front: More than 6 million people are stalked each year, one in six women and one in 19 men.
“Stalker” tries to be an equal-opportunity victimizer in its pilot episode by featuring a B story about one male college student stalking another guy, but the way it plays out is not nearly as graphic as watching a woman burned alive.
“Stalker” was created by Kevin Williamson (“The Following”), and although it’s largely a procedural, Mr. Williamson attempts to imbue the show with some serialized elements. New York transplant Jack Larsen (Dylan McDermott, “The Practice”) is new to the LAPD stalker unit where he works for Lt. Beth Davis (Maggie Q, “Nikita”).
But Larsen is not just a detective on the trail of stalkers — he’s a stalker, too! And for equal-opportunity creeps, Beth appears to be a past stalking victim who will happily turn the tables on male stalkers by stalking them!
Is there anyone on “Stalker” who’s not doing some sort of stalking? It sure doesn’t appear so from the pilot episode, which winds up having a decent if unlikely resolution to its primary mystery.
Even if it’s possible to get past the ugliness of the violence against women in the pilot, it’s hard to imagine that a procedural with such a tight focus won’t get old fast. There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, as Paul Simon sings, but it’s difficult to imagine there are nearly that many different ways to perpetrate a stalking.
‘Gracepoint’
When: 9 p.m. Thursday, Fox.
Starring: Anna Gunn.
The subject matter in “Gracepoint” is more of the terribly sad form of horrifying because it’s about the murder of a 12-year-old boy.
In its first two episodes “Gracepoint” is not interested in the macabre — there’s no graphic violence shown — instead concentrating on finding suspects and the struggles of its characters.
But it’s difficult to see “Gracepoint” as its own series because it is based on the BBC America show “Broadchurch,” and the first couple of “Gracepoint” episodes follow the same plot — even some of the same camera angles in some scenes — with such stringency it will be difficult for “Broadchurch” viewers to avoid a sense that this new show is a rerun. (Producers promise “Gracepoint” will deviate down the line, but who has time to wait for that with so many quality shows begging to be watched?)
Of course, most Americans never saw “Broadchurch.” For the murder-mystery fans among them, “Gracepoint” is fine, but they’d be better off seeking out the superior “Broadchurch.”
In the Northern California town of Gracepoint, police detective Ellie Miller (Anna Gunn, “Breaking Bad”) is promised a job that ends up going to outsider Emmett Carver (David Tennant, essentially reprising his “Broadchurch” role but with an American accent). That happens just as the body of 12-year-old Danny Solano turns up on a beach beneath a rocky cliff.
Danny was friends with Ellie’s son, not unusual in a tight-knit town where the murder inexplicably leads to a decline in tourism. (Maybe once upon a time that would happen but in modern America? Seems unlikely.)
Emmett has baggage from a previous investigation and Ellie has a chip on her shoulder about being passed over so they have immediate conflict. Emmett thinks she’s too close to members of the community to be objective; Ellie thinks Emmett is an uncaring outsider.
The “Gracepoint” pilot introduces a wealth of potential suspects including Danny’s family members; a local newspaper reporter (Kevin Zegers), who is Ellie’s nephew; a crusty kayak rental concessioner (Nick Nolte); a local minister (Kevin Rankin); and a hotel owner (Sarah-Jane Potts).
By the end of episode two, all signs point to one likely suspect, but because this is a 10-episode series, it seems almost certain that he’s not the actual killer. If “Gracepoint” turns into a frustrating, red herring-of-the-week show like “The Killing” was in its first season, viewers may not stick with “Gracepoint” long enough to learn whodunit.
First Published: October 1, 2014, 4:00 a.m.