David Morse - Hack

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) September 26, 2002 Thursday Broward Metro Edition

September 26, 2002 Thursday Broward Metro Edition
SECTION: LIFESTYLE; TOM JICHA TV/RADIO WRITER; Pg. 6E
LENGTH: 451 words

Crime Drama Hack Stays True To Its Name

BYLINE: Tom Jicha TVRadio Writer

The premise of Hack is so preposterously ludicrous, CBS should have taken it a step further and put its hero in tights and a caped body suit with a bold "H" on his chest.

David Morse stars as Mike Olshansky, a Philadelphia taxi driver turned vigilante crime fighter. The difference between Mike and Travis Bickle, the nut case in Taxi Driver, is that Mike is ostensibly a good guy -- or as good as someone who takes the law into his own hands can be. The law used to be in his hands. Mike was a cop until he got caught helping himself to some of the cash seized in a bust. His Nixonian defense, that everybody does it, got him about as far as it did the disgraced president. This is why he's driving a cab on the night shift.

Old habits die hard, as do street lowlifes who cross him. Even without a badge, Mike's a self-appointed public guardian. His "poor me" mental state is such that it could be a death wish, but he fearlessly insinuates himself into situations in which he's courting his own demise. When a group of muggers rough up a fare he has just dropped off, Mike rushes into the fray and single-handedly administers street justice.

He's barely finished dusting himself off when another rider tells Mike he's come to Philadelphia looking for his daughter, an 18-year-old runaway.

In no time, Mike analyzes the situation, makes some calls, figures out where the girl might be, and then becomes a one-man strike force against the thugs holding her.

Most impressive, he does it unarmed. When he was banished from the force, he was prohibited from carrying a gun.

He does maintain one crucial link to his past. His former partner, Marcellus Washington, who's still on the job, supplies him with intelligence available only to the police. The peerless Andre Braugher sells himself short as Marcellus, little more than a bit player in the premiere.

Mike's ties to his personal past are more limited. His estranged wife Heather their son Michael Jr.

The only person who's genuinely happy to have anything to do with Mike is his priest, Father Tom Grzelak, who's also his drinking and gambling buddy. George Dzundza, as Father Tom, walked away from Law & Order only to wind up in Jesse and now this.

At one point, having resolved one contretemps only to be re-engaged by another, Mike looks toward the heavens and asks, "What else you got for me?"

If he had gotten an answer, it likely would have been along the lines of, "Not more than another few weeks."

ON TV

Program: Hack

Stars: David Morse, Andre Braugher, George Dzundza, Donna Murphy, MatthewBorish

Airs: 9 p.m. Fridays on WFOR-Ch. 4 and WPEC-Ch. 12

NOTES:
INFORMATIONAL BOX AT END OF TEXT.

TYPE: TELEVISION PREVIEW

LOAD-DATE: September 26, 2002