Jesse Stone Editorial

[Miss Q]

Article published February 27, 2009
Tom Selleck is back for the fifth installment of the Jesse Stone TV movie series


Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone


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By MIKE KELLY
SPECIAL TO THE BLADE

At one point in his lengthy television career, Tom Selleck came to be identified with a bright red Hawaiian shirt, the type he wore in his role as a smart-alecky private eye in the long-running 1980s series Magnum, P.I.

These days, the 64-year-old actor is more like an old pair of jeans - frayed a little at the cuffs and worn thin at the knees, but still the most comfortable item of clothing in the closet. Never is that more apparent than in his role as Jesse Stone, the small-town lawman at the center of a popular series of TV movies that have been running on CBS over the last few years.

On Sunday night, Selleck is back again as the laconic police chief of Paradise, Mass., the tiny seaside town where he wound up after losing his wife and his job as an L.A. homicide detective because of his drinking problems. Jesse Stone: Thin Ice is the fifth installment in the series, which is based on the best-selling novels by crime writer Robert B. Parker. The two-hour movie airs at 9 p.m. on WTOL-TV, Channel 11, in Toledo.

As always, Selleck plays Chief Stone as a lonely, brooding sort, a man of few words but a guy with stoic strength and an unbending moral code. The chief routinely disappears for long periods of time, and when he finally turns up and people ask where he's been, his standard reply is a terse non-answer: "Fighting crime."

Once again, he's ably supported by the other members of his small but stalwart police department: Rose Gammon (Kathy Baker, formerly of Picket Fences) and Luther "Suitcase" Simpson (Kohl Sudduth). This time around, he's under more pressure than usual from the stiff-necked members of the town council, who wish he'd stop uncovering crimes in their peaceful little hamlet because the publicity isn't too good for tourism.

"We think you police this town like a cowboy sheriff in a bad movie," sneers one councilman during a contentious meeting. "I think you're making up your own rules."
"Like Little Bill Daggett," Jesse replies quietly.


"Excuse me?"

"Gene Hackman in Unforgiven," Jesse explains helpfully, then adds with a straight face, "I would prefer that you think of me as a benevolent Gene Hackman."

Unlike previous installments of the series, much of the action in Thin Ice takes place not in Paradise but in nearby Boston, where Jesse gets caught in a shootout while he's there visiting his old pal, State Homicide Commander Healy (Stephen McHattie). Healy is nearly killed, and Jesse himself is wounded, and from that point on, the story follows his dogged efforts to track down the shooter and bring him to justice.

Along the way, the stubborn cop mixes it up with Boston mobsters, has an unlikely romance with a cute female investigator with the very unlikely name of Sidney Greenstreet, and encounters a desperate woman who believes that her kidnapped son is somewhere in Paradise.

But the plot is really secondary, and that's a good thing, because it happens to be pretty thin. If you're a Tom Selleck fan, however, it's probably satisfying enough just to watch him gaze out to sea and wrestle with his private demons, seldom without a cup of coffee or a glass of scotch in his hand. Unlike most TV movies, Jesse Stone stories allow things to develop at their own pace, and if that sometimes takes a while, well, that's the way it goes in a place like Paradise.

As a rule, TV movies don't fare so well in the ratings, but the Jesse Stone franchise on CBS has been an exception. The four installments that have aired to date have averaged more than 15 million viewers, and the last one, which was up against the season finale of the popular ABC series Dancing with the Stars, still managed to capture more than 13 million viewers.

The network has enough confidence in the franchise that the sixth episode, titled Jesse Stone: No Remorse, is currently wrapping up shooting in Nova Scotia.

Thin Ice happens to be one of the weaker entries in the Jesse Stone series, but it still manages to be a cut above the average "disease of the week" or "ripped from the headlines" TV movie. And that's mainly because of Selleck. He's still ruggedly handsome, he brings a real presence to the screen, and he seems more than comfortable in his role.

Almost like he's wearing a favorite pair of old jeans.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /902270325

[layne]

Below is Entertainment Weekly's review...

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/02/tom-selleck-don.html



And this is from the Los Angeles Times...

'Jesse Stone: Thin Ice' Sunday on CBS
Tom Selleck's good-guy appeal and a strong supporting cast make for an engrossing police tale that isn't afraid to linger over the details.
By MARY McNAMARA, Television Critic
February 27, 2009

While most crime series today rely on some sort of technical or psychological twist -- the wonders of forensics, the special knowledge of a reformed fake psychic or a good-guy serial killer, “Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," which debuts on Sunday, sticks with the fundamentals.

Based on the works of one genre icon — Robert B. Parker -- and starring another -- Tom Selleck in the title role -- the Jesse Stone series (this is the fifth TV movie) offers a refreshing return to a television era when small towns were brimming with intricate crimes, filmmakers were not afraid to keep their actors in closed-space dialogue for minutes and the biggest psychological twist a cop faced came in a bottle, usually with a red or black label.

Stone is a former LAPD detective who got kicked off the force for drinking and became the chief of police in the small Massachusetts town of Paradise. He has an ex-wife he still loves and a shrink who smokes so much that it is at times difficult to see that yes, that is William Devane, still hale and hearty, eyes twinkling away under all those silver whiskers.

Stone also has two eager if less experienced police officers, played by Kohl Sudduth and the always wonderful Kathy Baker.

Even so, he is not a happy camper. Unlike Selleck's most famous role, Stone is neither happy nor enthusiastic; he is, at times, a bit like Thomas Magnum on Xanax. Not a lot of Xanax -- Stone still has a sense of humor and the occasional gleam in his eye -- just enough to take that carefree edge off. Still, he is very likable and not just because Selleck, at 64, remains as handsome and decent-guy-solid as ever. Stone is a good cop and, for all his cynicism, one who still cares.

"Thin Ice," which is the first of the films not based directly on a Parker novel, makes this clear from the get-go. While hanging with a buddy on a stakeout, Stone gets caught in the crossfire. A state homicide commander gets shot; Stone takes one too but manages to prevent the shooter from finishing the job.

This puts him square in the middle of a Boston Police Department Internal Affairs investigation, which as luck would have it, is conducted by the comely Sidney Greenstreet (Leslie Hope, who bears no resemblance to Sydney Greenstreet). The Paradise Town Council is also more than a bit irked by the fact that its police chief was on a stakeout in Boston instead of at home handing out lucrative speeding tickets.

So when the distraught mother (Camryn Manheim) of a baby kidnapped seven years earlier arrives, convinced that her child is now living in Paradise, it is not surprising that Stone's first reaction is "nothing-we-can-do-ma'am." But of course he can, and does, while sorting out the shooting of his buddy and attempting to make some sort of emotional progress beyond a two-drink maximum.

With a cast that has won its weight in Emmys and Golden Globes, it's not surprising that "Thin Ice" is filled with great performances; what is surprising is that so many of them are so marvelously small and subtle.

This is a slow-moving film, especially in comparison with the often hyperkinetic pacing of today's television, but that's one of its greatest strengths. Like good police work, good storytelling requires time and a eye for detail; "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice" has both.

[Steve]

Oh how the Jesse Stone Movies have grown on me, and I had to practically be forced to watch at first kicking and screaming as I couldn't get my hands around my beloved, carfree Thomas Magnum as such a sullen character with flaws that would make even TM wince. But, where else do you see a character with a alcohol problem that doesn't try and solve it or preach to us and him about it, the character just deals with it. The recurring stars and guest stars are, what I imagine to be, any Directors dream list.
Now, this installments romantic interest has the name of Sydney Greenstreet and played by Lelie Hope I can't wait, and am glad there is already another wrapping up.....Way to go, Tom, you are indeed like the article said, a pair of slightly worn blue jeans but the pair you always put on first.........

[Agatha]

Great reveiws and thanks to layne and Miss Q for posting them!

Isn't it interesting that even though the Magnum and Stone characters are completely different, we talk about "fundamental"... "stoic strength"...and "unbending moral code" when we talk about both of them? It's because Tom Selleck brings those qualities to the characters that he plays. I REALLY like what the reviews say about how slow-moving the Jesse Stone movies are and how things are allowed to develop at their own pace. I feel that when I'm watching them and become so engrossed that the end always sneaks up on me and I can't believe it's over already. I also love Jeff Beal's beautiful but melancholy music...almost an additional character.

A lot has been said about why Tom Selleck may not be as "hot" a star as he "deserves" but I, personally, feel it's quite an honor to be thought of as a pair of jeans..."frayed a little at the cuffs and worn thin at the knees, but still the most comfortable item of clothing in the closet" because it speaks to the humanity of the man and the genuine feelings that his admirers have for him.

Sigh.

[MACattack]

I believe that Tom Selleck is like a bottle of well-aged Scotch.
Even though I'm an avid MPI fan, I also respect the Jesse Stone series for its superb writing and its star, Tom Selleck.
"Thin Ice" was an interesting episode and I enjoyed the shootout as an intro, but the ending was incredibly weak. Jesse Stone was fired from his job and was last seen on a bus to Arizona.

Well, maybe Stone will be a vigilante from now on, and start hitting the bottle a little heavier. Not that is a good thing, but it will make for a better plot.

[Agatha]

No! No! No! After he helps the mother of the missing child adjust to the child's death, he's going to come back to Boston to help Healey while he's recuperating...that's close enough to also help Luther, Molly and Rose keep Paradise in order...kind of a Chief in absentia. And by the time Healey's back to work, that nasty old codger on the Town Council will have retired and then Jesse will be able to come back to work in Paradise...for good. With some extra consulting activities in Boston, now that they know how good he is.

Well...

I can hope, can't I?