Hack Review

The same thing can be said about Hack, which is working overtime to be different, but in that quest takes a path it should never have gone down. David Morse (St. Elsewhere, etc.) plays a morally challenged ex-cop from Philadelphia who got caught trimming some of the money found at a bust. He figured he was owed it -- he'd taken a bullet and was a well-respected beat cop following a long line of family members who also served the city.

Busted, he becomes a hack -- a taxi driver. Bitter? Of course he is. His wife has dumped him, and his young son is ashamed of him. He's not even a very good cabbie. In the pilot, he discovers a new calling -- helping troubled fares solve problems.

Why isn't he a private detective? Maybe because that wouldn't seem like trying. But a cabdriver who solves crimes -- hey, neat.

On paper, maybe. But even the addition of Andre Braugher to the cast (as his former partner, still on the force) doesn't help much. The stretch is too great. For instance, when Morse drops off a predictably annoying fare and the guy starts taking a beating in an alley, he pulls his cab around, flashes the lights, jumps out and says, glaring, "Somebody call a cab?"

Oy.

Hack is too contrived to seem remotely fresh, and you can't help but think that a good-hearted vigilante cabdriver is an idea that's going to run its course -- or the meter on its own plausibility -- pretty quick.E-mail Tim Goodman at tgoodman@sfchronicle.com.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Anthony LaPaglia track missing persons in the new CBS drama Without a Trace.

LOAD-DATE: September 25, 2002