Lincoln Rhyme: Der Knochenjäger

I keep watching the next episode hoping that my ambivalence to this show will dissipate. It has yet to do so. I loved the movie, I never read the books to be honest, so my critiques is less regarding source material and more the show. At first I couldn't put my finger on what bothers me about the show...but unfortunately it comes down to Russel Hornsby. His portrayal of the main character is painful to watch. The timing feels strange, the writing for him is terrible. His stoicism is almost annoying. He is really hard to watch. (This isnt to say I haven't liked Hornsby in other roles, I really blame the back room for this mess)

The writing in general is terrible. They don't allow for any exposition to come naturally, through acting or organic story. Its all shoehorned really awkwardly into some cringe-worthy dialogue.

Let's give this series a few more episodes to gain some of that valuable (writing) experience before assessing whether this new crime/mystery series is worthy of support from a mandatory sized audience to extend the series into a second season.

I liked the lead actors/actresses and how each person(s) old baggage is introduced to the audience in this pilot episode. It is a lot of information to pack into a 45 minute TV episode. Let's not try and compare the two (2) hour major motion picture of 1999 The Bone Collector, starring Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah with this new TV crime series.

I give credit to Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector for bringing to the small screen a new crime/mystery series with some depth of character and story line. Actor Brían F. O'Byrne who plays the serial killer that Lincoln Rhyme (Russell Hornsby ) is chasing are both perfectly cast as the illusive bone collector and as the confined to a bed serial killer investigator.

I am optimistic that the future story lines of Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector will be a cut above the other standard crime TV series that should have been taken off the air some several seasons ago. (You know which crime series I am referring to).

An excellent start to the year 2020

But I seriously can't stomach Russell Hornsby's smarmy and irritating portrayal of Rhyme. Even the other characters on the show are making excuses and hoping that he will lighten up. I am hopinh he will go through some epiphany eventually becoming a decent human being but I am not holding my breath.

The implausible and convoluted clue-solving is fine though.

Why bother to trade on a popular book series and then change half the characters? What possible difference could it have made to keep the caregiver Thom, the forensic guru Mel, the police officer Ron? Why change Sachs' back story to a generic TV show drama trope? And especially the beginning - made up and completely different than the book. Deaver evidently sold out to change not just the characters but his carefully crafted portrayal of a quadriplegic. This show's version has Lincoln all but get up out of bed and dance a jig.

A lot of that was the characters as Deaver wrote them. When you take away characters the (highly successful) author created that are central to the books (ie Thom, Mel) and change the ones backstories that you did keep you are left with this....yet another cop show like all the other cop shows. There is nothing interesting about this show. Putting a man in bed does not create something new or exciting. To make it worse, Russell Hornsby's portrayal of Lincoln Rhyme is just off. Sometimes I'll give shows a chance to get better, but this sadly won't be one of them.