Stormy “Crossing”

Although there’s been more publicity surrounding tonight’s return of 24, the Kiefer Sutherland series on FOX, I want to draw your attention instead to the sixth-season U.S. premiere of Crossing Jordan, at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific and 9 p.m. Central.

The NBC-TV promo for this evening’s episode is headlined, “Jordan Seeks to Prove Her Innocence,” and it offers this episode briefing:

A fugitive on the run, Jordan (Jill Hennessy) travels to the nation’s capital in pursuit of the news story that her ex-beau Pollack (guest star Charles Mesure) had been working on to find out what really happened the night he was murdered. Meanwhile, Lu (Leslie Bibb) brings in the prickly and abrasive Dr. Kate Switzer (guest star Brooke Smith), an independent medical examiner, to prove that Jordan is guilty. Macy (Miguel Ferrer) travels to Washington to find Jordan, and the rest of the team works on collecting the evidence needed to clear her name.

I’m not going to argue that Crossing Jordan is the best mystery series ever to hit the American airwaves--it’s not. But at a time when crime and detective series are in short supply, and those that do exist all seem to have CSI or Law & Order in their titles, Crossing Jordan deserves props for being different. And it deserves a look.

READ MORE: “So When’s This Jack Bauer Movie Gonna Get Moving?” by Scott Weinberg (Cinematical).