'Eyes' adds wit to prime-time crime

March 30, 2005|Globe Staff

According to the ratings, we're smitten with the bleak realism of today's crime dramas. The ''CSI" shows take their cues from ''The Silence of the Lambs," as they hypnotize us with the ugliest sides of being human. The ''Law & Order" series etch psychological and judicial corruption with a compelling, machine-like precision. And these franchise products do offer addictive thrills as they turn the dark side into a procedural science.

But for all their cool spectacle, these shows are short on charm. For all they offer in brainy detachment, they're lacking in personality and fun. ABC's ''Eyes" is a happy new addition to prime-time crime because of its swagger and kooky wit. Scheduled opposite both ''Law & Order" and ''CSI: NY," tonight at 10 on Channel 5, ''Eyes" brings a breezy alternative to the time slot, as it takes on the world of private investigation.

Like ''Alias," which airs right before it, ''Eyes" refuses to take itself too seriously, giving us spies who gleefully outsmart one another like rivals over a chessboard. It has the frolic of a David E. Kelley series, but without the micro-miniskirts and dancing baby. Tim Daly is the show's unlikely star, and he brings along a slick good humor that was missing in his last series, ''The Fugitive." He plays Harlan Judd, the owner of an elite private-eye firm that operates just outside the law. If you take your case to the police, Judd boasts to his Fortune 500 clients, you'll never get your money back. He's arrogant, but he's likable and, usually, right. He's the kind of dapper character you'd more likely expect to see played by Daly's onetime ''Wings" costar, Steven Weber.

He and his Judd Risk Management team use plenty of high-tech gadgetry to track embezzlers and extortionists; but, more important, they rely on their canniness and sense of trickery. They're all about setting elaborate traps. At times, the show plays out with the overlapping plot twists of ''The Sting," so that what we're seeing may well be a setup for something else. Who's punking whom? That often becomes the question.

And while they bluff the bad guys, the team members also try to corner one another. When you've got such a collection of heavyweight sneaks under one roof, you have to expect a little inter-office surveillance, a little spy vs. spy. Investigator Jeff (Eric Mabius) is having an affair with married technician Trish (Natalie Zea), and Trish's husband, Danny (Reg Rogers), is the Judd surveillance expert. In other words, the adulterous private eyes may not be as private as they think.

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