Today's column reviews tonight's return of "Saving Grace" and tomorrow night's debut of "The Cleaner" on A&E:The new A&E drama series "The Cleaner" (Tuesday at 10 p.m.) opens with a title crawl explaining that its hero, "extreme interventionist" William Banks (Benjamin Bratt), is "not a cop. He's not a superhero. He's just a man with a Calling."To read the full thing, click here.
The disclaimer seems designed to distinguish "The Cleaner," which travels in a grimy world filled with junkies, dealers and thieves, from the eleventy billion cop shows on the air right now. But at its heart, the show is just as much of a police procedural as your average "CSI" spin-off, albeit with a hair more emphasis on character.
In that way, it's not dissimilar to TNT's "Saving Grace," which returns tonight at 10. Both feature damaged heroes battling addictions and demons (Banks is a veteran of multiple 12-step programs, while Holly Hunter's Grace drinks, smokes and sleeps with the wrong men far too often), and both don't seem to trust that character alone will get people to watch.
Haven't decided yet whether I'm going to individually blog either episode over the next two nights. Based on my press tour load -- Fox shows up today, beginning the busier broadcast network portion of the tour -- I would tend to doubt it, so feel free to use this post to discuss either one after they air.
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