Lincoln Rhyme: À la poursuite du Bone Collector

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.

I watch a lot of the European crime mini series genre and I think it's ruining me for American tv. Much like last season's "Prodigal Son" I was eager to watch the premier of this new serial killer hunt show and, just like "Prodigal Son" I was very disappointed. So many of these shows attempt to be all things to all people and take their design from 10 other shows all combined and repackaged as a "new" show. I'm not going to go into a plot synopsis as I think it's been covered here and in the book and film, so I will get straight to my impressions of the show. First of all - too much cast. It's hard work keeping track of all of them. Way too many background players, "team" members in various roles assisting the bed-bound Lincoln Rhyme. Other shows do these various roles with one person per job - this has at least 2 per. The exception being Rhyme's hovering nurse who spends her time pursing her lips and shaking her head while she takes Rhyme's vital signs. (Prediction, she will either end up needing to be being rescued or will surprise us all with her previously unforeseen toughness.) Next, the show foreshadows way too heavily and loudly. If you are introduced to a new character who is emotionally connected to main cast, odds are really good that they will need to be saved within the next 15 minutes. The use of "emotional flaws" to humanize main characters is also telegraphed loudly and comes into use as a plot device within the next 15 minutes also. Lastly, and I have seen this mentioned in other online reviews, this show is crazily unbelievable. There is no reality to their portrayal of the NYC police and it seems to exist in some alternative dimension. It actually has the feel of a super hero/comic book movie with the rapid fire clue, chase, find, repeat activity that occurs. I'd also like to mention that the over-use of CGI to illustrate Lincoln Rhyme's thought processes is boring and uninteresting. Taking a page from "The Alienist" Rhyme has pre-1900's New York City maps, geology and history in a giant library inside his head so every clue must be sketched out to demonstrate it's source. If there was any explanation as to why the main protagonist The Bone Collector uses these points of reference and is thus so clearly matched with nemesis Rhyme I missed it. I know I will watch a few more episodes to see if it improves and I hope it does. If it does I will edit this, but like "Prodigal Son" I do not hold out great hope.

The way the character is written and acted is really annoying. I like the show at certain levels but overall not great.

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.