Fox (Tuesdays, 9 P.M. ET)
B-
This new anthology drama series concerns the people in an artsy downtown Manhattan neighborhood. The recurring characters are a restaurant owner (Philip Bosco) and a mounted policeman (Joe Morton), who dispense comfort and wisdom to the locals. This saintly and selfless duo is a little too good to be true. (That, by the way, is the motto David Letterman has suggested NBC News adopt: "Too good to be true.") But the guest stars, such actors as Melanie Mayron, Eli Wallach, Stephen Lang, Richard Lewis and Peter Boyle, drive the plots. In other words, this is a prestige version of Jacks Place. In the pilot Larry Fishburne plays a flighty man who must assume the responsibilities of his older brother (Carl Lumbly), a successful banker who is killed in a mugging.
The show is attracting impressive talent. The direction is stylish and the New York City flavor piquant. But so far the scripts have been of a lofty, ponderous nature.
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