Title: Kojak: Series
Premiere
Stars: Ving Rhames,
Chazz Palminteri, and Roselyn Sanchez
Writer: Anthony
Piccirillo
Director: Michael
Watkins
Executive Producers:
Tom Thayer and Ving Rhames
Running Time: 90
minutes without commercials
Media: USA Network
Original Series Premiere (NTSC DVD Screener)
Premiere Friday,
March 25, 2005, at 9pm (ET/PT)
Network: USA Network
(Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)
TV Rating: Not
Available At The Time Of Review
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
After nearly three decades, the lollipop-sucking New York City Police Detective has returned with Actor and Series Executive Producer Ving Rhames as “Kojak.” A serial killer has been targeting prostitutes, who are also single mothers. He leaves his victims bound and gagged with razorblades in their mouths, but the killer has no regard for the children so he leaves them unharmed. In the face of a citywide panic, Kojak sets out to piece together the evidence and find the killer before he possibly starts to expand his target range to include entire families. However Kojak is unprepared for what he discovers regarding the latest victim. As a result he is placed into a moral dilemma that not only puts his badge in jeopardy, but also puts the city he has tried so hard to keep safe in danger too.
The series also stars Actor and Playwright Chazz Palminteri and Actress Roselyn Sanchez. The original “Kojak” series, which starred Telly Savalas, aired on CBS from 1973 to 1978. The new series opener is a bit of a downer at times, but what turned me off about the show was not the brooding moments so much as the fact that Rhames doesn’t seem tough enough and likeable enough for me to want to see anymore cases. In a market flooded with all kinds of cop shows, I can understand why the producers would try to find some middle ground to make their series stand out. However if I am going to see Ving Rhames in a movie or TV show, I want to see him kick some butt. The series attempts to make him seem ominous with these silly jumpy slow motion expression shots, but all they do is remind me that I’m watching Ving Rhames and because this is standard cable, I am not going to see him get “medieval on some perpetrator’s ass.” I do not know Rhames personally and so for all I know he could more of a big teddy bear of a guy than the “badass” characters he has come to be identified with in films like “Pulp Fiction,” “Con Air,” and the 2004 remake of “Dawn Of The Dead.” Yet if I had a choice, I’d rather watch Rhames play the tough guy rather than see him cry as he does in the final moments of the series opener.
It takes more than a shaved head and a lollipop to make a character like “Kojak” memorable for viewers. From the popularity of the original series, Telly Savalas obviously knew this and used his personality to get the most out of the character he played. Rhames just seems to wound up or tight lipped to be charismatic. Perhaps future episodes will be more interesting, but I found the series premiere to be mediocre at best.
“Kojak” will
debut on the USA Network with a special two-hour premiere on Friday, March 25,
2005 at 9pm (ET/PT). An encore of the premiere episode will air on Sunday, March
27, 2005 at 10pm (ET/PT). The next new episode will then follow beginning on
Sunday, April 3, 2005 at 10pm (ET/PT), which is the series regular time slot.
Eight one hour episodes are scheduled air beginning with the Sunday, April 3,
2005 installment at 10pm. Check it out.
© Copyright 2005 By
Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.