‘Prey’ Needs To Crank Up The Energy
“Prey,” a midseason drama series premiering on ABC at 8, presents a frightening what-if scenario.
What if global warming altered DNA and produced a new human species? And what if the new breed took the expression “survival of the fittest” literally?
Debra Messing (“Ned and Stacey”) stars as bio-anthropologist Dr. Sloan Parker, who discovers the new species and the plan to destroy the human race. They look like humans, but they’re smarter, and some of them, at least, are serial killers. Sloan is assisted by a dedicated young medical researcher, Dr. Ed Tate (Vincent Ventresca), and the one cop who takes her seriously, Detective Ray Peterson (Frankie R. Faison).
I like Messing as the intelligent Sloan. And I applaud the producers’ choice of striving for suspense rather than relying on special effects or action to drive this series.
And yet, after watching the first two episodes, I was left feeling what “Prey” needs is more drive. And there were too many unanswered questions.
Where did they come from? How many of them are there? And, since they’re adults, did global warming change the species 30 years ago?
Maybe this is a case where I don’t want television to give me so much to think about.
Highlights
“Friends,” NBC at 8: Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) embryo implant is the big story, but the big laughs come when Joey and Chandler (Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry) challenge Monica and Rachel (Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston) to a high-stakes trivia contest.
“On the Line” (1998), ABC at 9: Linda Hamilton plays a single-mother cop who moves from the sex-crimes unit to an all-male robbery-homicide division. Her focus is on a rape-beating case and a series of bank robberies by a gang of teenagers.
The plodding TV movie spends a great deal of time establishing that most of her male co-workers are sexist pigs who spend more energy on idiot pranks than police work. How entertaining is that?
Perhaps more of this stuff should have ended up on the editing-room floor.
Hamilton delivers a flat performance and has absolutely no chemistry with co-stars Jeff Fahey and Coolio. “On the Line” is off the mark.
“ER,” NBC at 10: Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) encounters another elderly rape victim. Anspaugh (John Aylward) softens, asking Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) to care for his son (Trevor Morgan), who is battling cancer.
Weaver (Laura Innes) finally begins to see Ellis (Clancy Brown) for the villain he is.
“48 Hours,” CBS at 10: A report looks at self-professed satanist teens, a subject network journalists looked down their noses at a decade ago when Geraldo Rivera took up the topic in a controversial prime-time special.
Cable Calls
“Up Close,” ESPN at 3: Host Chris Myers talks with O.J. Simpson in a live interview from ESPN’s Los Angeles studios.
“Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” HBO at 8: Former Dallas Cowboy Duane Thomas is profiled. Also featured is a report on the big-bucks sports memorabilia business.
“The Beguiled” (1971), TNT at 5 and 8: Don Siegel (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers”) directed this unusual but effective film set during the Civil War. Clint Eastwood stars as a wounded Yankee soldier recuperating at a Southern girls’ school.
Talk Time
“Tonight,” NBC at 11:35: Actor Bruce Willis, cooking with Dom DeLuise, and businessman Donald Trump. Repeat.
“Late Show With David Letterman,” CBS at 11:35: Actor Kenneth Branagh, CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz and music group Spice Girls.