Title:
Wanted: TNT Original Series Premiere Episode “Rush”
Stars:
Gary Cole, Ryan Hurst, Rashida Jones, Benjamin Benitez, Josey Scott, Brendan
Kelly, Chris J. Kelly, Sasha Pieterse, Lee Tergesen, and Dedee Pfeiffer
Writer:
Jorge Zamacona
Based On
A Story By: Jorge Zamacona and Luis St. Clair
Created
By: Jorge Zamacona and Luis St. Clair
Directed
By: Davis Guggenheim
Executive
Producers: Aaron Spelling, E. Duke Vincent, and Jorge Zamacona
Running
Time: 60 minutes with commercials
Media:
TNT Original Television Series (NTSC DVD Screeners)
Series
Premiere Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 10pm (ET/PT)
Network:
Turner Network Television (Check your local cable/satellite listings for
channel)
TV
Rating: TV-MA-L-S-V
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Wanted”
is the new gritty TNT original series that stars Gary Cole as the leader of an
elite underground task force created from the top agents from the FBI, DEA, ATF,
LAPD, SWAT, and Navel Intelligence. Collectively they use their vast experience,
agency connections, and the most sophisticated technology the can gain access to
in order to capture L.A.’s 100 most wanted, violent, and offensive criminals.
The series features lots of hand held camera movement and quick cuts to
intensify the action and there is a lot of profanity as well as a bit of gore to
give the show some larger than life realism. Among the first three criminals to
be captured in the three episodes I screened included an escaped death row
convict, bank robbers, and murderous members of an Asian gang.
I like
Gary Cole as an Actor a lot. I think he is very versatile and the characters are
all flawed in some way or another, which makes them more human and therefore
more interesting, but I have to admit that I’ve never really been into cop
shows in general and I found little in the three episodes that I screened that I
thought was novel. I suppose fans of the genre may enjoy it, but at times even
the characters we are supposed to root for seem quite unlikable and I couldn’t
believe the dramatic character change between the first episode and the second
where a female character who is supposed to be a Navel Intelligence Officer goes
from being a quiet and dignified woman into another foul mouthed cliché of a
crime investigator.
Eight
episodes are set to air beginning with the series premiere on Sunday, July 31,
2005 and running thereafter through Sunday September 18, 2005, at 10pm (ET/PT)
with an encore following at 11pm (ET/PT).
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.