Femme Fatales

I've watched three episodes of this so far and have become a fan.

As someone who is tired of reality crap and the same stale, safe plot formulas playing out on network and cable (please kill me before I watch yet another cop/CSI show), "FF" takes a collection of familiar elements and tosses them in a pop culture mix master set to high. Yeah, it's corny at times, but it's also alternately funny, suspenseful, sexy, smart and scary — all depending on the episode.

There are a lot of "grindhouse" elements here but without the gore or general "torture porn" mood of that genre. And while "Skinamax" fans are offered plenty of eye candy, the female characters are never debased or pointlessly exploited, and generally have the upper hand in the end. Yes, the femme fatales are the stars of "FF."

The most recent episode, "Something Like Murder" offers the most traditional "film noir" style of the show so far. And while it depends heavily on familiar characters — the plot was pretty clever, and the cast game. Dialoge-wise, it reminded of what Pauline Kael said about the modern noir classic "Body Heat": "Sounds like the characters have been boning up on Chandler novels." But is that so wrong? Just a wink and a nod to the source material inspirations.

I'm not sure where "FF" is going, but I'll stay along for the ride.