This ‘Badge’ Stands For Quality Drama
ABC’s “Badge of Betrayal” at 9 is a creepy cat-and-mouse tale that pits a sleazy small-town sheriff against the female officer he’s sexually intimidating and harassing.
Harry Hamlin plays Sheriff Dave Ward unabashedly over the top, and Michele Greene is erstwhile deputy Annie Walker, a new hire who is appalled by the way the top cop runs his department.
He may remind you of the evil lawman played by Gary Cole in last season’s CBS drama “American Gothic.”
Ward, who is married, also has a girlfriend, a department secretary (Linda Doucett of “The Larry Sanders Show”) whom he beats whenever he’s in a sour mood.
As Walker tries to cope with Ward’s unwanted advances, it becomes apparent that he’s engaged in all kinds of illegal activity, including murder.
Former “L.A. Law” co-stars Hamlin and Greene work well together. You quickly learn to hate the overdrawn sheriff and are genuinely pulling for the deputy.
She, by the way, is anything but a helpless victim.
Though you never doubt where this movie of the week is headed, it holds together better than most. You’ll stick with it just to see the sheriff get his comeuppance.
Highlights
“Cosby,” CBS at 8: Hilton (Bill Cosby) is picked by a White House committee as an “average American” who will have President Clinton over for dinner. Media, family and friends create a frenzy, naturally. New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has a cameo.
“Ink,” CBS at 8:30: Cheryl Ladd guests-stars as “The Manhattan Madame,” a socialite busted for running an escort service. She offers Mike (Ted Danson) an exclusive, but he runs into a problem when an unlikely member of the newspaper staff shows up in her little black book.
“The Secret” (1996), NBC at 9: It’s deja vu all over again as yet another TV-movie teenager (Ari Meyers) has to figure out whether her football-star boyfriend (Mark Krassenbaum) is the person responsible for the unsolved murder of another student (Soleil Moon Frye).
Though producers say the story is “suggested by a true story,” it unwinds as a contrived, not to mention, tortuously acted melodrama. It’s neither a good mystery nor a satisfying thriller; it’s a real waste of time.
“Ned and Stacey,” FOX at 9: Ned (Thomas Haden Church) shoots a low-budget commercial for the muffin shop that makes Amanda (Nadia Dajani) a star as “The Mean Muffin Lady,” who, we suspect, is inspired by “Seinfeld’s” “The Soup Nazi.” When the boom in business goes to Ned’s head, his half-baked ideas nearly spell disaster. (New date and time.)
“Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,” ABC at 12:35 a.m.: Roseanne, Arianna Huffington, Coolio and G. Gordon Liddy are the unlikely combination of guests for the ABC premiere of Maher’s unpredictable, often hilarious, talk show.
Cable Calls
“Testament: The Bible in Animation,” HBO at 7:30: From Britain’s BBC comes this richly illustrated, almost textbook-quality collection of Bible stories, which begins with “The Creation and the Flood.”
Joss Ackland is the voice of Noah, who tells his family the story of the creation and Adam and Eve as they drift about in their floating zoo.
Nine tales are included in the series, which employs both traditional and state-of-the-art animation techniques. So far, HBO has scheduled “Abraham” (Jan. 13); “Joseph” (Jan. 20); and “Moses” (Jan. 27).
“America Undercover,” HBO at 10: “A Kill for a Kill” follows Linda Kelley and surviving members of her Texas family who witness the execution of Leo Jenkins, a man convicted of murdering two of her children in a pawnshop robbery.
The grim documentary, covering the eight days leading up to the Feb. 9, 1996, execution, shows survivor’s anger as well as the preparation for the killer’s death by lethal injection.
Sobering but at times surreal, it is provocative fodder for the death-penalty debate.