Gugino makes new ABC drama worth watching

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This article was published 01/10/2003 (8316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CARLA GUGINO is no Jennifer Lopez.

Now, before anybody starts getting all defensive, it should be pointed out that this is in no way intended as a criticism. In fact, there are probably many TV-watching observers of pop culture for whom ANYONE who isn’t the distaff half of “Bennifer” would be seen as a welcome relief.

For better or worse, however, Gugino is going to spend the next few months constantly being compared to J.Lo, because the character she plays in the new ABC drama Karen Sisco (which premieres tonight at 9) is based on the one Lopez played in the 1998 big-screen feature Out Of Sight, which also starred George Clooney.

The creation of novelist Elmore Leonard, Karen Sisco is a doggedly determined U.S. marshal who works the swamps, seasides and sun-soaked resorts of Miami’s Gold Coast. Gugino (Spy Kids, Spin City) may not be a performer who generates the excessive fuss and bother around Lopez, but her work in Karen Sisco is more than enough to make this new drama worth a look.

Incidentally, one of the series’ producers is Danny DeVito, a longtime fan of Leonard’s literary work whose past production and/or starring credits include Out Of Sight and Get Shorty, both adapted from Leonard’s novels. Don’t be surprised if DeVito turns up as a guest star on Karen Sisco before too long.

In tonight’s pilot episode, Karen is dispatched to Miami’s airport to pick up a dangerous criminal who’s being transported to Florida to stand trial. But she’s unaware that the marshal assigned to accompany the killer has died during the flight of an apparent heart attack. The prisoner has stolen his ID and handcuff keys and walks straight past Sisco and out onto the street.

Naturally, this doesn’t go down very well with her superiors, who threaten to pull her off the case and assign her to more mundane duties if she isn’t able to locate and re-arrest the fleet-footed felon.

Also concerned about Karen’s professional life is her father, Marshall Sisco (Robert Forster), a semi-retired private investigator who enjoys danger and intrigue himself, but would much rather see his daughter marry a doctor or lawyer and get out of the guns-and-handcuffs game altogether.

Forster is terrific in the role of Sisco’s crusty dad, and if the show’s producers have any sense at all, they’ll find lots of ways to incorporate his character into Karen’s storylines.

For her part, Gugino is confident and competent as the series’ star. It’s unlikely that her version of this character will generate the kind of heat and headlines that that other star’s did, but it’s because of her that Karen Sisco is a drama worthy of an extended prime-time run.

Now, if ABC’s execs could just think of a way to get some of Law & Order‘s faithful following to give their show a try…

*     *     *

Relatively speaking: In the world of TV sitcoms, there’s average, and then there’s absolutely, completely, following-the-comedy-blueprint average.

And then there’s It’s All Relative.

This extraordinarily ordinary new sitcom, which debuts tonight at 7:30 on ABC, wastes the talents of a very able cast by running them through the paces of almost every tired TV-comedy gag you can imagine.

Bobby (Reid Scott) and Liz (Maggie Lawson) are from decidedly opposite sides of the tracks, but they’re in love and determined to make a go of it. This doesn’t sit well with Bobby’s sweaty-blue-collared Irish-Catholic parents, Mace (Lenny Clarke) and Audrey (Harriet Sansom Harris), tavern owners who really hope Bobby will marry within the neighbourhood and someday take over the family business.

And if the O’Neils are upset about the newly formed romantic pairing, it’s nothing compared to the outrage expressed by Liz’s “parents” — father Philip (John Benjamin Hickey), an affluent, Protestant-raised art-gallery owner, and his life partner, Simon (Christopher Sieber), a school teacher.

So, let’s see, then. One side’s rich, one side’s poor. One side’s Catholic, one side’s Protestant. One side’s well-educated and articulate, one side’s simple, coarse and loud. One side’s out-and-proud gay, one side’s stuck-in-the-’50s puritanically straight.

And caught, awkwardly but hopefully, in the middle… LOVE.

How, in the name of Ralph Kramden, could zany sitcom high jinks NOT ensue?

Well, they don’t. At least, not in any out-of-the-ordinary fashion. Clarke, a funny guy who was excellent in Denis Leary’s short-lived but beloved cop comedy, The Job, fares the best in It’s All Relative‘s too-rare funny moments, but even his character spends much more time being annoying than amusing.

Our prediction is that It’s All Relative will soon become just another cancellation.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca