PBS (Sundays, Jan. 18, Jan. 25, Feb. 1, 9 p.m. ET)
B+
Dr. Owen Springer (Robson Green) swears he's gonna love Anna Fairley (Francesca Annis) come rain or come shine (or words to that effect). As if to prove his ardor, he gets drenched three times in this six-hour contemporary miniseries on Mobil Masterpiece Theatre. Unfortunately, Anna is married to Dr. Richard Crane (Michael Kitchen), his boss at a hospital in Manchester, England. Though an adulterer in his own right, arrogant Richard refuses to let Owen have Anna without a fight—an all-out war, in fact. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether Richard and Owen are more intent on winning Anna or thwarting each other. As for the practice of medicine, they'll try to fit it in somewhere.
Writer Paul Abbott (Cracker, British version) gets the most out of this tangled affair, mixing drama and comedy while probing the differences between affluent, "40-odd" Anna and "30ish" Owen with his working-class roots. Green (a British TV and pop star getting his first American exposure) and veterans Annis and Kitchen are all fine, as is David Bradley in the part of Owen's laconic dad, Arnold. But Reckless runs out of steam in the last hour, and the story comes to a conventionally romantic, predictably wet conclusion.
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