Character-driven 'Karen Sisco' is an all-around winner

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Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Character-driven 'Karen Sisco' is an all-around winner

By MELANIE McFARLAND
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC

There is sex, and there is sex appeal. The former doesn't have much mystery to it. Sex in all its blaze and blare easily gets viewers rubbernecking, but a show has to follow up the trick with the promise of substance. That's a point network television often fails to grasp, perhaps because writers often confuse the act with the tease.

TV REVIEW

KAREN SISCO

WHEN/WHERE: Premieres at 10 p.m. tomorrow on KOMO/4

And the tease is the essence of sex appeal, serving to draw out our interest by maintaining a level of flirtation. Modesty stokes the fires with a glimpse of ankle hovering above a stiletto heel, a close-up of plump lips as a manicured finger slides on lip gloss, a vision of beauty and self-assurance wrapped around a core of steeled determination.

Novelist Elmore Leonard understands this, because all of these qualities went into the creation of U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco. A sexy, tough babe who launched Jennifer Lopez's acting career in Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight," Sisco is the definition of a mystery writer "dame."

Staying true to Leonard's style, "Karen Sisco," premiering tomorrow at 10 p.m. on KOMO/4, sizzles. That's not just because Carla Gugino, the actress playing Sisco, is a knockout. That's just smart casting.

"Karen Sisco's" spark is in the interplay between police procedure and hard-boiled romance. This is a drama that handles each case like a slow dance, a cat-and-mouse courtship sailing from tale to tale almost completely on the strength of its characters. For most series that's not usually enough to carry an audience through; however, Leonard's people -- how they mix, mash and crash -- drive his work.

What the scribes deliver on paper, Gugino elevates in her delivery. As time goes on, you may forget J. Lo had the role first. (Thank goodness.) Perhaps borrowing from the TV traditions dictated by the likes of Honey West or Christie Love, Gugino's Karen is the most ladylike femme fatale you'd ever want to be chased by. She doesn't raise her voice if she doesn't have to, and when chauvinism raises its ugly head on the job, she beats it back with action instead of anger.

She sips bourbon, keeps her Sig Sauer .38 strapped to her leg and is an ace tracker because she has everything about men figured out -- except how to successfully have a relationship with one.

Could have something to do with her line of work. Once her dates find out she's killed a few guys, one in "a hand-to-hand type situation," they get a little squirrelly.

Doesn't bother her much, though. Karen and her close relationship with her private investigator father, Marshall (Robert Forster), are at the heart of these tales, and in "Karen Sisco," Gugino's easy interactions with Forster give each episode a certain glow. Rarely do we see a loving father-child partnership on television that rings as true and wonderfully as this.

Any other child might consider him a meddler, since he's always on the phone quizzing her with some dumb criminal-of-the-day story, or giving her advice on how to handle cases, office politics and her love life.

Plus, he's usually right. It helps, too, that Marshall was a formidable law enforcement agent in his own time, which led him to cross paths with any number of criminals and convicts who, in his semi-retirement, are now his and Karen's poker buddies.

Karen may always get her man, but she has a soft spot for every kind of Mr. Wrong available: married men, sexist co-workers, con artists, crooks of every shape and size who find themselves drawn to her and quite often underestimate how tough she can be.

"The only way you're going to stop me is to shoot me," one of bad boys she beds tells her as he casually prepares his escape. "You're not going to shoot me, are you Karen?"

She does, of course, following up the bang with a nice parting line. "I want you to know, I had a pretty good time, considering."

"Karen Sisco" is a stylishly edited work, with direction that captures the essence of Leonard's Miami, augmented by a terrific soundtrack. The show's executive producers, Danny DeVito among them, have shown a knack for capturing Leonard's ear for true-life dialogue. They also have "Out of Sight" scriptwriter Scott Frank and Leonard himself consulting on each episode. A formidable arsenal, yes, but necessary to maintain the crisp writing destined to be the show's signature.

Each episode has the measured cadence of a short story, so it makes sense that the premiere was lifted from the short story "Karen Makes Out," the prequel to "Out of Sight."

As such, ABC's Karen Sisco" requires a bit of patience for viewers who are familiar neither with Leonard nor the concept of a cop show that is anything less than fast moving and by the book. For "Law & Order" viewers hooked on its predictable pacing, that notion could be a tough sell. "Karen Sisco's" success and lifespan depend on its ability to take a chunk out of NBC's most reliable ratings devourer.

With the kind of action and sex appeal the show has shown in its first two episodes, she just might be able to do it. Keep an eye "Karen Sisco." You'll have serious regrets if it gets away.

P-I TV critic Melanie McFarland can be reached at 206-448-8015 or tvgal@seattlepi.com.

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