DRAMA
"Everyone everywhere remembers the story of Elizabeth Smart," NBC's Katie Couric said last month in her prime-time special on the subject. That's only a slight exaggeration, thanks to the media's saturation coverage of the Utah teenager's kidnapping. So much of the investigation and the anguish seems to have played out in public that this TV movie, though fairly competent, is doomed to redundancy.
The filmmakers take a no-frills, chronological approach, following the twists and turns of the case from the night in June 2002 when vagrant religious fanatic Brian David Mitchell (Tom Everett) allegedly snatched Elizabeth (Amber Marshall) from the bedroom she shared with younger sister Mary Katherine (Hannah Lochner). Though we see Mitchell tyrannizing Elizabeth and his wife, Wanda (Hollis McLaren), and hear him spouting semiscriptural mumbo jumbo, the movie never really tries to get inside his head. The emphasis is on the struggle of Elizabeth's parents, Ed (Dylan Baker) and Lois (Lindsay Frost), to keep the police, the public and themselves believing that the mystery is solvable and their daughter is still alive. Baker overacts early on but has a poignant moment when Ed takes a polygraph test and gives a sad, weary "no" to the question of whether he killed Elizabeth. Frost is solid throughout, and Marshall effectively plays Elizabeth as a girl who keeps a flicker of hope alive while submitting to her captors.
Still, the drama is critically short on emotional impact. Without afresh angle, this is a story too many viewers already know backwards and forwards.
NBC (Sun., Nov. 9, 9 p.m. ET)
DRAMA
The makers of this middling TV movie had a better plotline before the debunking began. Early accounts of Jessica Lynch's ordeal in Iraq—and much of the drama of her story—were undercut by later reports that the Army supply clerk's injuries did not include knife or gunshot wounds and that the hospital was not under Iraqi military guard when U.S. forces burst in to free her.
The film offers a compelling re-enactment of the ambush that led to the capture of Lynch (Laura Regan) and the deaths of 11 American soldiers. But we gather little about her life in small-town West Virginia from the few flimsy flashbacks. The focus here is more on Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief (Nicholas Guilak), the Iraqi lawyer who put himself on the line to help U.S. troops rescue Lynch. Unfortunately, the script is sketchy and simplistic in explaining al-Rehaief 's heroism.
UPN (Mondays, 8:30 p.m. ET)
COMEDY
I had a suspicion that this show would be less than brilliant when Shelly (hip-hop artist Eve) met handsome J.T. (Jason George, from Platinum) in the premiere and her dress got caught on his pants.
The star, while sexy, isn't much of an actress, and the writing is lazy and obvious. In painfully typical sitcom fashion, Eve and J.T. confront relationship issues and get bad advice from their friends. Sample question: Should the guy always foot the bill on a date? Buddies Nick (Brian Hooks) and Donovan (Sean Maguire) say J.T. should shell out just enough to "get laid." Eve consults Janie (Natalie Desselle-Reid) and Rita (Ali Landry), and the latter tells her to make a long, insincere reach for the restaurant check, showing so much cleavage that a drooling J.T. will be grateful to pay. Here's a better tip: Change channels.
MAC IS BACK
The Bernie Mac Show (FOX, Nov. 9, 8:30 p.m. ET) Bernie moves to Sunday, but he's still contentious. In the season premiere he clashes with his new neighbor, a lawyer played by Ally McBeal's Greg Germann.
BEST REASON TO WHISTLE
The Andy Griffith Reunion (CBS, Nov. 11, 8 p.m. ET) Aunt Bee will be watching in heaven when Griffith, Ron Howard, Don Knotts and Jim Nabors get together to share Mayberry moments from the '60s sitcom.
A FRIEND OF THE COURT
The West Wing (NBC, Nov. 12, 9 p.m. ET) The White House asks ex-High Court clerk Joe Quincy (guest star Matthew Perry) to check the condition of the stricken chief justice.
DOUBLE TAKE OF THE WEEK
The Challenge (ABC, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. ET) Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have their differences in this TV movie. They play estranged sisters forced to get along on a reality show.
- Contributors:
- Terry Kelleher.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
