TV: Night Stalker

This revamped version of the short-lived 70s show is a watered down X-Files with a touch more horror.

As we open the first episode, Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) has just been hired as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Beacon, and his first move is to get on the bad side of Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), the senior crime reporter, by showing up at a crime scene that she's supposed to be covering. Emily Gale has been murdered, and husband Henry is the prime suspect. At least, he is until his sister is also killed, and her young daughter Julie is kidnapped. (I would have bet money that the kid's name would be Dorothy.)

Why is Kolchak so fascinated by these murders, and so unwilling to stay out of Reed's way? Turns out that they are connected to a mysterious -- and possibly supernatural -- series of unsolved crimes he's been tracking, which include the murder of his own wife; the FBI still considers Kolchak the leading suspect in his wife's death, but have never been able to gather sufficient evidence to charge him.

In Kolchak and Reed, the show's going for that X-Files Mulder & Scully thing -- one believer, one skeptic, forced to work together, and no doubt with oodles of unresolved and unexpressed sexual tension. But Townsend and Union have neither the charisma that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had as individuals nor the chemistry they had as a pair. Townsend, in particular, is working so hard to keep his American accent intact that very little personality of any sort comes through. Eric Jungmann is effective, though, as the Jimmy Olson/comic relief sidekick.

The show is often poorly photographed; even if the setting is a cave at night, the audience has to be able to tell what's happening. Night Stalker is a murky mess, and it's hard to imagine that it'll last very long.