Yet another CBS police procedural
John Park looks at the new CBS show Stalker
CBS is expertly churning out police procedural shows like clockwork and it seems to be working with the audience. Their newest show,_ Stalker, _is winning its new Wednesday night slot across the Atlantic, competing against ABC’s country music drama _Nashville and NBC’s police drama Chicago P.D. _and it recently hit the screens over here in the U.K. airing on Sky Living.
The premise is a rather simple one. Every week there is a stalker who harasses someone and it is up to the Threat Assessment Unit (TAU), a team of highly skilled detectives led by the charismatic Lieutenant Beth Davis (Maggie Q), with the newest addition to the force, Senior Detective Jack Larsen (Dylan McDermott) tagging along, to solve the mystery and catch the bad guy within the 40 minute episode slot.
Red herrings are of course used frequently, so the most obvious answers tend not to point to the right perpetrator, because otherwise the show would be over in five minutes. Instead each episode introduces nice little twists, although its amateur, frankly patronising, psychological profile the characters spew out that help them build some sort of a portfolio for the man/woman they are trying to catch, is somewhat embarrassing.
But there is fun to be had in a procedural that adds an element of horror into the mix. Creator Kevin Williamson was also responsible for writing the Scream franchise back in the day, and there is certainly an element of torture-porn in here, although being on a network television show there is very little Stalker can do to push the boundaries.
Maggie Q and Dylan McDermott make a good team, with both characters carrying secrets that could and probably will affect the way they do their jobs in the future. No doubt when it comes to the ratings sweeps stage some dramatic can of worms will be opened that will stretch into a double-episode format.
Stalker serves well as a bit of harmless fun, particularly for those with an aversion for seeing all the fake dead bodies the CSI franchise hurl out week after week.
