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NBC's 'Crossing Lines' Crosses One Line Too Many
June 21, 2013  | By Ed Bark  | 4 comments
 

William Fichtner is all knotted up again and the actor playing his boss looks ready made for the lead in Dracula 2013.

They’re the tightly wound leading men of NBC’s Crossing Lines, a crime series with an international bent that arrives spindled and mutilated with Sunday’s 9 p.m. ET two-hour premiere.

The first killer at large of course is of the serial kind. And his prey — of course  are young women whom he stabs and then disfigures beyond recognition. So far he’s murdered in four different countries. Sounds like a job for “a unit mandated by the International Criminal Court to investigate cross-border crimes and ultimately bring global criminals to justice.”

The head of this outfit is Louis Daniel (Marc Lavoine), an all-business, pale-skinned Frenchman with tragedy in his past. Fichtner is substantially more haunted as ex-New York City cop Carl Hickman, who in his opening narrative states, “I was not in a good way … the only thing keeping me alive was anger and morphine.”

Hickman’s right hand is badly impaired by a bullet wound from a child abduction suspect. Railroaded in some way by his Big Apple superiors, he’s now a drug-dependent trash picker at an Amsterdam carnival. But Daniel needs his crack crime-solving expertise despite the fact that Hickman says he’s physically incapable of firing a gun let alone filling out a crime report. Mais oui, he very reluctantly becomes part of a bickering/bantering team whose overseer is International Criminal Court inspector Michael Dorn (the ubiquitous Donald Sutherland).

Sunday’s first two hours are a mix of high-tech detective work, intuition, flashbacks and clunky dialogue. As when Hickman balks at initially getting no respect by telling one and all, “You can kiss my ass in Macy’s window.”

Co-stars include Hickman’s new partner, Anne-Marie San (Moon Dailly); trigger-tempered Irish boxer/detective Tommy McConnel (Richard Flood); Europol Sgt. Eva Vittoria (Gabriella Pession) and Berlin copper Sebastian Berger (Tom Wlaschiha).

Fichtner, whose jaw previously has been firmly set in series such as Prison Break and Invasion, brings a well-practiced inner torment to Crossing Lines. So well-practiced that it’s getting tedious. Early in the second hour, he studiously beats himself up for the kidnapping of a team member. “If we find this girl alive, I’m out,” he says. “You understand? I’m out.” All right, OK. Got it.

The pursuit of the killer is at best moderately diverting. Climactically, everyone laughably boards a high-speed, border-crossing chopper after the bad guy’s location has been firmly determined. This ultimately leads to Fichtner’s Hickman matter-of-factly declaring, “Cleaning up garbage is something I’ve always been good at.”

Crossing Lines isn’t breezy enough for a summer diversion. Instead it’s ponderous, pretentious and too predictable.

It’s also high time that prime-time TV put a muzzle on its rampant and brutal slaughtering of young women. Not only on Crossing Lines, but on NBC’s Hannibal, Fox’s The Following, AMC’s ongoing Season 3 of The Killing and any number of CBS’ weekly “procedural” crime hours.

In terms of sexual activities, an array of female and male body parts remain taboo on broadcast network TV. But hacked limbs, deep cuts and bloody corpses are still very much A-OK. As is a killer’s “Run, you bitch!” while he savors the thought of hunting her down with a knife on Crossing Lines.

Here’s hoping we’ve all had more than enough of that.

GRADE: C

Read more by Ed Bark at unclebarky.com

 
 
 
 
 
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4 Comments
 
 
Ray
The show was dropped by NBC, because people liked it. When a show has a massive following. NBC will kick it to the cancellation curb each and every single time. If a show (ie Reality Show) is a poor performer, NBC will keep it on indefinitely! This is why everyone despises NBC!
Aug 26, 2015   |  Reply
 
 
Galer Barnes
I completely agree and will prove it by turning off those shows -- include True Blood in that list. No redeeming value, just gore, shock and no-awe.
Jun 24, 2013   |  Reply
 
 
sandy
Why did the dog have to be killed?
Jun 24, 2013   |  Reply
 
 
Neil
Michael Dorn? They named Donald Sutherland's character "Michael Dorn?" Not exactly a "John Doe" kind of moniker. In fact, it's the name of the actor who played Worf in the Star Trek franchise. Attaboy, guys, start off a lousy summer replacement with the Curse of the Klingon Empire hanging over your heads.
Jun 21, 2013   |  Reply
 
 
 
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