Night Stalker
ABC, Thursdays at 9/8 pm
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
The Hollywood Reporter
Sep. 29, 2005
Night Stalker
By Barry Garron
9-10 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 29
ABC
It has been 30 years since "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" prowled at ABC, enough time to challenge anyone's memory. That's probably for the best because in some ways "Night Stalker," as newly envisioned by Frank Spotnitz of "The X-Files" fame, differs markedly from the original. If, however, the new series is judged on how well it scares and entertains and not on how carefully it is cloned, it is both a success and unique among the shows on the fall menu.
In the original, which lasted only one season, Darren McGavin played Carl Kolchak, a Chicago reporter who, week after week, ran into stories filled with horrible surprises and elements of the supernatural. His editor, Tony Vincenzo, was skeptical but Kolchak knew there was a lot going on in this world that defied simple and logical explanations.
In the new version, Kolchak still knows the world can be a weird and dangerous place, but he's a young man (Stuart Townsend), brash and fearless, unlike the original Kolchak, a wisecracker at the tail end of his career who had seen it all. The new Kolchak migrated west, where he is employed by the fictional Los Angeles Beacon. Vincenzo (Cotter Smith), Kolchak's editor, has faith in his young employee. However, Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), the paper's crime reporter and reluctant partner with Kolchak, assumes the role of series skeptic.
That rough description might suggest that Spotnitz simply has found a new venue to resurrect the Scully-Mulder dynamic from "The X-Files," but that would be unfair. "Night Stalker" has a different slant on the world, and Union endows her character with many other qualities.
In the premiere, Kolchak, newly hired, pursues a story about a pregnant woman who falls prey to a vicious attacker, perhaps not unlike the one that mysteriously but violently killed Kolchak's wife. The killing spreads, as do Perri's suspicions about her new colleague, particularly after an FBI agent tells her he thinks Kolchak murdered his wife.
Will "Night Stalker" be mainly about who killed Kolchak's wife? Fortunately, no. A subsequent episode sent for review indicates the series will broaden its horizons, flesh out Kolchak's personality and let Perri come into her own, all encouraging signs.
Spotnitz, who wrote the script, and director Dan Sackheim understand that, when it comes to suspense and terror, less onscreen violence is more. That, and the smart use of jump cuts and interesting angles, make this a dependable source of entertaining fright as well as a logical companion for "Alias" on Thursday nights.
NIGHT STALKER
ABC
Big Light Prods. in association with Touchstone Television
Credits:
Executive producers: Frank Spotnitz, Daniel Sackheim
Co-executive producer: Michelle MacLaren
Consulting producer: Dan Curtis
Producer: Lori-Etta Taub
Creator-teleplay: Frank Spotnitz
Director: Daniel Sackheim
Director of photography: Clark Mathis
Production designer: Waldemar Kalonowski
Editors: Christopher H. Nelson, Christopher Cooke
Music: Michael Wandmacher
Casting: Mia Levinson
Cast:
Carl Kolchak: Stuart Townsend
Perri Reed: Gabrielle Union
Jain McManus: Eric Jungmann
Tony Vincenzo: Cotter Smith
Henry Gale: David Denman
Emily Gale: Ele Keats
Agent Bernard Fain: John Pyper-Ferguson
posted by Frank Spotnitz at 8:03 PM