You’ve seen this before: the dramatic opening shot of the outside of the prison, the robbery where an innocent person dies, the apparent capture of the “bad guys” in the middle of the show, the shocking plot twist and the dramatic ending that makes you feel that justice was served.
- Todd Weiser
- Courtesy of NBC
Yes, another police detective show has made its way onto the small screen, this time in the form of “Hunter: Back In Force,” the NBC Sunday night movie. Whether Hunter is actually “back in force” is open to debate, but when you combine a strong cast with a storyline we’ve seen all too many times, what’s left is essentially a two-hour episode of “CSI.”
This show is the follow up to last fall’s “Hunter: Return to Justice,” and subsequent one hour episodes will follow in the weeks to come. Lt. DeeDee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) ventures back into the homicide division in San Diego to team with Lt. Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) to investigate a chain of bank robberies. At the same time, an old nemesis by the name of Randall Skaggs (Gregory Scott Cummins) is out on parole and up to his old tricks, forming a trio of trouble with some old friends.
A well-organized bank robbery, followed by some clever detective work, leads McCall and Hunter to a women’s prison to talk with one of the inmates (Joanie Laurer, WWE’s “Chyna”). As luck would have it, a corrupt prison guard named Ray Davies and prison psychologist, Westberg, both connected with Skaggs, are at the forefront of this crime, and getting to them is the key to getting parole-violating Skaggs and company back in the slammer.
The script is too clich