Earlier this week, Global sent out about a hundred women wearing dark hats and glasses onto the streets of Toronto. Some sort of Blues Brothers marathon on TV? A salute to Fedora the Explorer? No, it was to remind all of us to watch their new crime import Prime Suspect, premiering Thursday night at 10 p.m. on Global.
The NBC series stars Maria Bello (A History of Violence) as a tough-as-nails inner-city cop and she’s arresting in every scene. Tonight’s pilot is a little much with the men vs. women stuff back at the squad room, and you’ll swear you saw the same story once on Hill Street Blues or NYPD Blue, but Bello demands attention right from the opening scene when she busts out her gun in the back of a taxi. Aidan Quinn plays Bello’s boss, who sorta has her back against the “Beef Trust” bully boys at the precinct.
And, yes, she wears a dapper black Kojak hat now and then in case you were wondering about the promotion. Global tried the same sort of ballyhoo approach a few seasons ago when they brought the K.I.T.T. car from Knight Rider to town and pretended to steal it in front of witnesses on the streets of Toronto. The only people who cared were the ones who got stuck in traffic because of the stunt. Global hopes this hat trick goes better and gives Prime Suspect a head start.
