Too Many Characters Fill Up ‘The Beast’
NBC tries to reel in viewers with claws rather than jaws Sunday and Monday nights.
Peter Benchley, the author of “Jaws,” concocted the notion that a squid with razor-sharp claws can wreak havoc on a tiny island community.
In four-hour-long “Peter Benchley’s ‘The Beast”’ (Sunday and Monday at 9), Graves Point Island in the Pacific Northwest is saddled with such a sea monster.
The creature can shred boats, eat humans and tear apart a baby sperm whale faster than you say, “Holy calamary!”
In Part 1, a boozing ship captain (Larry Drake), egged on by the town’s largest developer (Charles Martin Smith), angers the monster when an attempt to blow it up backfires. In Part 2, cheesy special effects illustrate the monster’s effort to strike back.
The purpose of the first two hours is to introduce viewers to the cast of characters (mostly TV-movie stereotypes from central casting) and an assortment of love affairs. This way, when our favorite characters become the creature’s main entree, we can be sad.
The underwater horror tale often swims into murky waters. It’s overlong and talky, and there are too many characters to keep track of.
Highlights
“Made in America” (1993), NBC tonight at 8: This average comedy stars Whoopi Goldberg as the owner of an African-American bookstore who must admit to her daughter that she was conceived with the help of a sperm bank. The donor turns out to be a flamboyant used-car dealer (Ted Danson).
Only in America could Danson and Goldberg get away with such an uneven mix of social satire and so many dumb jokes. Repeat.
“Murder, She Wrote,” CBS Sunday at 8: This is the series’ final four. In four Sundays, the queen of whodunits will deduce her last case and sign off after 12 seasons and 264 episodes.
Master sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) investigates a murder connected to a yacht race in Cabot Cove.
“Grumpy Old Men” (1993), CBS Sunday at 9: Walter Matthau is grumpy and Jack Lemmon is grumpier in this comedy for the older set about two seniors entrenched in a feud over Ann-Margret.
“She Woke Up Pregnant” (1996), ABC Sunday at 9: The title tells it all. Michele Greene plays a victim of a sicko oral surgeon (Joe Penny) who rapes his female patients while they are under anesthesia.
A preschool teacher (Greene) with two children accidentally gets pregnant and starts having nightmares about being raped. When she puts two and two together, she vows to get even.