A Televisual Feast

I’m trying to figure out the hook for “Touching Evil.” It’s well-acted and decently scripted–if way too long in the tooth–but there’s no hook. Robson Green’s dedicated cop is, at least in the pilot, just another dedicated cop. Sure, he’s got a seemingly psychic ex-con friend and a good relationship with his ex-wife and her new husband, but these are all little things. The show’s not about Green’s Creegan, it’s about the mystery. Creegan’s just the cop investigating the mystery.

This episode starts with Creegan rejoining the police, new to the division, so there’s lots of tension–not to mention a prickly relationship with his partner (why is it, on British shows, it’s always a man partnered with a woman?)–but he assaults a district attorney at one point, or the British variation; it’s unbelievable the show could continue. Creegan should lose his job. Robson Green’s a good actor and a fine television personality… but he’s not Clint Eastwood.

Another significant problem is the direction. It’s awful, no sense of mood. At times, when the setting is right, the lousy English weather does the trick, but other times… it’s just awkward. And the progressive video format they shot on looks bad, but that format’s practically a British staple, so it’s not fair to gripe about it.

The episode’s pacing is off too. There’s some investigating and it’s fine, there’s some character development and it’s fine, but the scenes with Creegan and the suspect are silly and the stuff with the police bosses is just a waste of time. There’s just nothing impressive about the series so far. I don’t know why I think there has to be (the British must have their equivalents of “The Evidence”), but it feels like there ought to be.

2.5