We Continue to Reserve Judgment

We’ve written a few times on this page about ABC-TV’s idea to revive classic U.S. private eye Philip Marlowe (played in this case by Irish actor Jason O’Mara) as the star of a fall 2008 series titled--no surprise here--Marlowe. But now it seems Bob Sassone of TV Squad has actually seen the pilot script, and he suggests today that “it looks like it could be a return to the great private eye genre that TV fans have been waiting for.”

OK, don’t get too excited. Sassone expresses hesitation over the script’s first-person voiceovers and its reliance on staples of the P.I. genre: “Marlowe is sick of L.A., he wonders why he doesn’t leave the city, and he comments on the city and the surroundings and how the rich live. He’s hired to follow the friend of rich couple Bill and Suzette Church, and problems arise from that seemingly mundane assignment. There’s a sexpot in the story, of course, and she causes trouble for Marlowe, too.”

Still, the critic writes that “If they do this show right, it will truly be unlike anything else on television. That’s if it gets past the pilot stage, of course.”