Night Stalker
ABC, Thursdays at 9/8 pm
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October 13
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October 20
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October 27
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Kansas City Star
A strange new drama stalks prime time
AARON BARNHART
"Night Stalker" (8 tonight, ABC, KMBC-9). Weird, intriguing and sinister, "Night Stalker" is the closest thing to an "X-Files" revival you're likely to see until the year 2015, when David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson finally agree to make another movie together.
The resemblance isn't by accident. "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," an ABC movie-turned-TV-series with Darren McGavin in the 1970s, was a direct influence on "X-Files" creator Chris Carter. And two former Carter associates on that show, Frank Spotnitz and Dan Sackheim, are producing the new "Night Stalker." (Also no accident: "Kolchak" is just out on DVD for those interested in comparison-watching.)
Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) blows into L.A. one day as a newly hired crime reporter and the next thing you know, he's all over a grisly abduction-murder. He's uncanny about the details. Even for a newspaper guy, he knows way too much. What's his secret?
Everyone has their theories behind Kolchak's prescience, and they are laid out in the show's expertly told pilot episode tonight. Gabrielle Union, as Kolchak's skeptical colleague at the paper, plays Scully to his Mulder.
For all those who are not confirmed "CSI" fans, this is worth a look.
Who knows, with everything that's gone right for ABC in the last year, maybe this won't be the ratings roadkill it appears to be.
posted by Frank Spotnitz at 8:07 PM