Brimstone

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It's hell on Earth for Detective Ezekiel Stone in this dark, implausible yet surprisingly watchable hour thriller in which Peter Horton has carte blanche to stumble around dazed and unshaven. Welcome to "satansomething," where New York is just another netherworld and the afterlife seems an awful lot like the present-day.

It’s hell on Earth for Detective Ezekiel Stone in this dark, implausible yet surprisingly watchable hour thriller in which Peter Horton has carte blanche to stumble around dazed and unshaven. Welcome to “satansomething,” where New York is just another netherworld and the afterlife seems an awful lot like the present-day.

The premise for “Brimstone” is a kind of “Spawn” meets “NYPD Blue.” The key word in the opening teleplay by Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff is redemption. Everybody wants it, nobody seems to have it, and only our hero Zeke (Horton) appears to have the means — and the motivation — to get it.

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As the show opens, Zeke Stone (one of New York City’s finest) has been dead for 15 years, blown away in the line of duty by some two-bit punk. It was apparently his karmic comeuppance for having murdered the punk who raped his wife. Despite the guy’s apparent vigilante justification for killing his wife’s attacker, Zeke is judged by the devil himself (John Glover in a deliciously sinister perf) to be no better than the criminal scum he once hunted and is sent directly to hell. No passing go, no collecting $200.

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So what is Zeke now doing in New York among the living? Seems there’s been a jailbreak in hell that allowed 113 (for you numerologists) of Hades’ most vile inhabitants to escape to Earth. Now they walk among unsuspecting mortals carting supernatural powers, and it’s up to Zeke (a kind of inter-soul bounty hunter) to round them up one at a time and drag their evil butts back to hell. If he can pull it off, the devil promises a transfer to heaven.

First on Zeke’s agenda in the pilot is to capture nothing less than a pedophilic priest (Peter Woodward). Meanwhile, Zeke himself is hunted by a cop (Currie Graham) who thinks it’s he who is kidnapping and raping young boys, since a guy who has come back after being dead for 15 years must be up to no good.

If the premise sounds a tad lame, Horton flashes enough hangdog expressions and dispenses sufficient soulful wisdom to make viewers care about his bizarre predicament. Glover is terrific in an appearance that’s all too brief, while helmer/director of photography Felix Enriquez Alcala lends the premiere stanza an agreeably foreboding, shadowy ambiance.

Yet Horton’s tallest order may be to slay “Brimstone’s” formidable competition — foes that includes ABC’s “Spin City” and “Sports Night,” NBC’s “Just Shoot Me” and the fall season’s most-hyped new entry, the WB’s “Felicity.”

Tech credits sparkle.

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Brimstone

Fox; Tues. Oct. 6, 9 p.m.

  • Production: Filmed in Los Angeles by Warner Bros. TV. Executive producers, Chad Hoffman, Ian Sanders; co-executive producers, Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, Felix Enriquez Alcala; producer, Peter Horton; director, Alcala; writers, Reiff, Voris
  • Cast: Ezekiel Stone - Peter Horton The Devil - John Glover Det. William Kane - Currie Graham Father Edward Solinas - Peter Woodward Production designer, Gavin Mitchell; camera, Alcala; editor, Kevin Krasny; music, Chris Lennertz; sound, John Thomson; casting, Barbara Miller, Irene Mariano, Tina Gerusi.

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