When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of Magnum P.I. Since I was 5 years old, I was glued to the TV watching Thomas Magnum solve cases and get in and out of trouble all over Hawaiian with his stalwart sidekicks and his badass Ferrari. Times change, though. While I do own one or two boxsets of seasons of the show and I’ll always stop to watch an episode if it’s on TV, you could say that eventually I want more from my protagonists and their stories. This is where the Jesse Stone series of TV-movies comes in. An interesting sidenote: Around the time I was into Magnum P.I., another show began to become a popular favorite on TV: Spencer For Hire based on the books by Robert B. Parker. The series another private investigator (this one based in Boston) and was played by Robert Urich in the TV show. Parker is an excellent novelist and that resonated extremely well in the adaptation that was broadcast for a brief three seasons on ABC. So here we are in 2009 and Parker has moved on to a new character for a series of novels, Jesse Stone. Stone is a former LAPD cop who is fired for being drunk on duty and is miraculously offered a job in the small New England town of Paradise as their new Chief of Police. Paradise is not the sleepy town it appears, though, and while Stone’s new life sounds like it should be quiet and uneventful, he becomes involved in mob killings, cold case murder mysteries, and serial killers on holiday. The show is nowhere near “fast-paced” and is heavily dialogue based. In a nod to my childhood (and how this drawn out narrative comes together), Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. is cast as Jesse Stone. Selleck plays Stone as a quiet, broken man who has many attributes of a capable lawman but swims in booze and regret. The compelling aspect of Stone comes in this flawed nature where if he’s not on a case, he’s drinking too much and regretting his failed marriage and lost career. The dialogue is crisp, the plots written very tight, and the casting of supporting characters with actors such as William DeVane and Kathy Baker makes this more than a guilty pleasure and definitely great television.
Tags: Reviews, Television
