A dim, predictable, cliché-happy new CBS procedural, “Stalker” is also the latest TV series created by Kevin Williamson, mastermind behind The WB’s “Dawson’s Creek,” The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” and Fox’s ongoing Kevin Bacon vehicle “The Following.” He also wrote three of the four “Scream” movies, “I Know What You Did Last Summer” “Cursed” and “Teaching Mrs. Tingle.”
It stars Dylan McDermott (“Hostages”) as a homicide detective stalking his former lover and Maggie Q (“Nikita”) as his new partner, an LAPD detective and former stalking victim charged with bringing stalkers to justice.
... This shoddy program is nothing more than exploitative, misogynist trash … Is the pilot worth a look? NO. A thousand times no.
... when Mr. McDermott’s character, Detective Jack Larsen, starts talking to Beth about her breasts (gents, don’t try this at your workplace), you know the true intent here, and it’s unpalatable.
... highly choreographed unpleasantness …
... doesn’t give viewers any good reason to stick around. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
There’s really not much redeeming about “Stalker”... Even if it’s possible to get past the ugliness of the violence against women in the pilot, it’s hard to imagine that a procedural with such a tight focus won’t get old fast. …
... possibly the worst drama of the season …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... too predictable. … Maggie Q and McDermott are competent, if not terribly interesting actors, and that about sums up the series as well.
... insipid … deplorable … get rid of horribly disrespectful lines like this one, said about a stalking victim: "Laurie is a strong, ambitious professional. Being a victim is a sign of weakness, so she chose to ignore her fears." Right, kind of like how such sexist, sensationalist ideas are a sign of extremely lazy television writing.
... the kind of show that will have you checking the locks on your door — and changing your Facebook status to “guarded by rabid pitbulls.”…
... Silkwood' shower, anyone? There’s something desperate and torture porny about this show …
... Maggie Q and Dylan McDermott star, but the question raised by the pilot is less whether you want to watch them than whether you want to watch a show that sets a woman on fire as an opening come-on. …
... Q was great fun in “Nikita,” but here she and her castmates are stranded amid a tired series of clichés … nothing about “Stalker” deserves to be sought out, much less found.
10 p.m. Wednesday. CBS.
