I saw some write-up awhile back for a new British series called Manhunt, and I thought it was a running series. Nope, just 3 episodes. And based on a true story, the hunt for a killer of a young woman in the middle of a park. Not my usual fare, honestly. I don’t often do mini-series and true crime rarely interests me. Truth is often in the eye of the beholder in a lot of the fare, and I prefer it not try and tell me “this is how it really happened” in a creative non-fiction.

But I watched the episode, with a relatively newly transferred Senior Investigating Officer, Colin Sutton. His wife is a behavioural analyst, but he doesn’t put a lot of stock in her psycho mumbo jumbo. Instead, he prefers boots on the ground going door to door.

What bothers me a bit with the protrayal is that he seems to be latching on to the direct route to the killer almost immediately. Hey, there’s a clue over there — nope, rubbish. Here’s a clue over here — nope, rubbish. Here’s something — yes, that’s the lead we need. Really? Seems a bit self aggrandizing to me, turning the lead into a super cop with a nose for crime. More divination than Sherlock Holmes’ deduction.

In the opening, he is dealing with possible links to other murders, internal politics as to who gets to be his second in command or not, lost evidence in earlier cases that might be linked, and a heavy reliance on CCTV footage that may or may not lead anywhere. I also find it bothersome that there is almost zero drilling down on the victim. Nothing about her life, possible suspects, they immediately decide it was someone random. I also can’t quite figure out how you kill someone in relatively broad daylight/nightime in a park — it is so obvious to see her that a passing pedestrian sees her lying on the ground and calls it in. Which means the victim and her killer could also have been easily seen, and the killer would have been seen by the victim coming too from quite a distance away. Plus there were people in the park not long before, so not exactly deserted either.

The lead actor, Martin Clunes, is awesome…very understated, very simply presented, and very compelling. He seems like a soft-spoken plodder and he is calming to watch run the case. There are good supporting characters, and they seem more like reporters working on a story than cops hunting a murderer.

Nobody in the EP really stands out except Clunes, and I would normally be on the fence for the future of the show. As soon as I saw it was 3 EPs only, I assumed that meant it was a mini-series. Nope, they’re bringing it back for Season 2. I have NO idea what that will be about – same characters? Different cases? This one is over in 3 EPs. And if it wasn’t so short, I might have gone with CANCELLATION. I’ll watch the other two EPs just to see what happens, but it isn’t really my kind of show, even with great acting by Clunes.

Somewhere between Dynasty and a telenovela, you can find the Grand Hotel premiere. The premise is centred around the last family-owned and -run hotel on the Miami strip. The family’s mother died sometime ago, leaving a son, a daughter and a husband. The daughter has just finished her MBA, and is returning home looking forward to running the hotel with her brother, assuming that the long-term plan still holds — eventually it will be the kids’ hotel.

Except Dad hasn’t told them he’s selling it. He’s been losing money for years, he has a new wife who doesn’t get along with the step-kids, and there is a lot of behind the scenes drama at the hotel:

• A concierge with the hots for a housekeeper;
• A housekeeper who’s pregnant thanks to a money guy at the hotel;
• The money guy who represents some loan sharks;
• A HR manager who has been with the hotel for years; and,
• A new all-purpose male staffer who can help act as waiter or whatever else needs doing.

Yet the intrigue starts in the midst of a hurricane. A chef from the kitchen has a meeting with the step-mom, and the step-mom speaks in oblique terms that the chef has something that doesn’t belong to her. The chef isn’t cowed however, as she calls the step-mom’s bluff, because the chef knows something about what the father has been doing. All general, no specifics, etc. And then in the middle of the hurricane, the chef is chased outside, she gets knocked out, and her body (dead or alive?) is dragged off. The action picks up one month later as the daughter returns from her graduation, just in time for her step-sister’s wedding.

And of course, most of the people are hot, well-dressed, and all jumping in each other’s beds.

Demián Bichir plays the father, Santiago, and he plays him like he’s suffering from a great weight. Like maybe he’s dying or something. A lot of IMDB credits, none of which I’m familiar with. He’s okay, nothing special to watch.

Roselyn Sanchez plays the step-mother, Gigi. I thought she was okay back in the day on Without A Trace, but all dressed-up playing a caricature here? Straight out of telenovela casting. Pass.

Wendy Raquel Robinson plays the HR manager, Helen, and all she does in the premiere is threaten people. Like Bichir, lots of IMDB credits and none of them have I seen. Space filler, but who knows, maybe she’s a killer.

Shalim Ortiz plays the money man, Mateo. I liked him in Heroes, and he might have something to do in other episodes, but in the premiere, he doesn’t do much of anything.

I could follow this line and mention all the workers, but really, the only three with any real presence are the brother, the sister, and the new waiter who is hiding the fact he’s the brother of the chef who disappeared during the hurricane.

Denyse Tontz plays the daughter-with-the-MBA Alicia and while she is cute, a bit of the girl next door, spunky, has some grit and brains, etc., she just seems INCREDIBLY YOUNG. There is zero gravitas with her. She seems like a 12 year old disappointed that people aren’t jumping to support her ideas. She’s decent, but not enough to wrap a series around, even with her soap opera experience.

Bryan Craig plays her brother, Javi, and he has a bit of flair. Mostly picking up and sleeping with anything that moves. Even better if their boyfriend is nearby and it’s just a hookup. He’s missing a leg, cause unknown, but he’s happy to exploit the limb for sympathy if it gets him in some girl’s pants. I saw the first episode of last year’s Valor, but I don’t particularly remember him, and none of the other credits jump out at me either. He’s decent, and if he was the main character, it would be a toss-up for the future.

By contrast, Lincoln Younes as the undercover brother of the missing chef gets lots of screen time. Always looking sincere, always charming, always ingratiating, always eager to please. And it’s supposedly a shock at the end to realize he’s the chef’s brother (yeah, it was obvious), and it makes NO SENSE based on how he was acting with several other characters earlier. He’s reluctant to get further involved with the owner’s kids for example (Javi and Alicia) yet they are the perfect window into the operations at the Grand. You know, the thing he needs to find out what happened. Instead, he acts like he needs the job, kind of attracted to the sister, embarrassed (not afraid) when she finds out he’s a waiter, blah blah blah. Not egregious, just inconsistent. And like the previous two, not enough to wrap a series around.

If there was more about the missing chef, I might have felt SOMETHING, or if the daughter didn’t seem like a princess coming home to a coronation perhaps. Either way, without it, I’m not going to be watching, and I’m going to have to predict CANCELLATION. Something “more” has to happen to have any chance at renewal.

I really want to like City on a Hill. And if you put all the little pieces together, the formula should work for me.

First, there’s the main character. Young black lawyer, righteous, wanting to rip apart corruption in 1990s Boston. He even has a cool name. DeCourcy Ward. Other than a few cameos I’ve seen him in, none of them memorable, I don’t know his work, but he’s decent enough.

Second, let’s throw in an FBI agent who’s moving and shaking in the area. With another cool name, Jackie Rohr. Team them up, now you got something to work with. Except that he’s a bigot, it should be fine, right? And he’s played by Kevin Bacon? That seems like a no-brainer. Well, okay, maybe not that horrible attempt at an accent. Meh.

And we’re going to need a bad guy, right? How about Jonathan Tucker as Frankie Ryan, a guy working in a grocery store with produce by day and robbing armored cars by night. Tucker was awesome back in the day in The Black Donnelly’s, and he gets to re-embrace his cinematic roots again.

Then, just for fun, how about we sprinkle a bunch of other well-known faces around:

• Mark O’Brian as Frankie’s idiot brother and federal snitch…I had trouble recognizing as Des from Republic of Doyle, I admit, but nice to see him here;
• Jill Hennessy from Law and Order and from Crossing Jordan plays Jackie’s rough around the edges wife, and I like her in most (but not all) things;
• Kevin Chapman pays a Boston PD detective, and I haven’t seen him much since playing Fusco on Person of Interest, definitely a plus, and he is GREAT in the first episode;

And Michael O’Keefe is in the opening as another FBI agent, and I was disappointed to see he’s not in other episodes.

So lots of familiar faces. None of them doing anything worth watching.

There’s an armored truck robbery, people get shot, there’s a strong slow contemplative feel to the show, not just bam bam, chase the bad guys. Conflict. Motives. Principles of law and order. Righteousness vs. getting the job done.

And I just didn’t care. I don’t care about DeCourcy and whatever is going on with his wife’s desire to climb social ladders. I don’t care about Jackie and who he is married to vs. who he is sleeping with. I don’t even care about Frankie and his desire to do right by his extended family. And it’s Showtime, so they can swear a blue streak all they want, it doesn’t make it interesting.

It’s on Showtime, so the economics of the show are different, but I’m going to predict CANCELLATION.