ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100038
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: tom shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: tom shales
How many people are all atwitter because ``Murder One'' is returning for a second season? Half atwitter would probably be more like it. Even fans of producer Steven Bochco's courtroom series must have been disappointed at the direction it took after a promising start last year.
The show has been remodeled, and the second-season premiere, airing tonight at 9 on WSET (Channel 13), is crowded with new characters, a new murder case, and dramatic turns of events. This year, Bochco says ``Murder One'' will do three murder trials over the course of the season instead of just one long case lasting 22 weeks, as it did last year.
To judge from the first two new shows (the second airs Oct. 17), this will give the series a lot more momentum. The first case might be called ``The Politics of Murder.'' It's the promisingly juicy story of how the governor of California and his mistress were murdered while in bed together at the beach house of a movie star.
Gone from the show is whispering baldy Daniel Benzali, who starred as big-time trial lawyer Ted Hoffman last season. He's been replaced by hirsute Anthony LaPaglia as James ``Call Me Jimmy'' Wyler, who when we first meet him is working for the district attorney's office on a case of police brutality.
When passed over for a big promotion at the whim of the DA, Wyler quits and crosses over to the other side. He lands quickly at Hoffman and Associates as a ``rainmaker'' and potential superstar. He wants to make big bucks for himself as well as the firm.
LaPaglia is very good. He looks like he might be a long-lost Baldwin brother, and has a tough musky voice that sounds a lot like real Baldwin brother Alec. He's more dynamic than Benzali and the character he plays is more freewheeling: divorced, mildly dashing, sexually active.
The absence of Benzali as Hoffman is dealt with in the script. ``Why are we maintaining the fiction that Ted is coming back?'' asks one of the associates. Where is old Ted? ``Taking it slow,'' someone says later. ``Trying to reintroduce himself to his family.'' Wyler is told that ``with Ted Hoffman gone, we need a marquee player.''
Now just by coincidence, the man running for governor against the suddenly dead incumbent is Wyler's old boss, the district attorney. He in turn is backed by the proverbial evil billionaire, a snaky charmer named Malcolm Dietrich played by - in a bit of reverse casting - Ralph Waite, once the beloved patriarch of ``The Waltons.''
The first episode covers a few days in August when the murder is discovered and the prime suspect - Wyler's first client - is arrested. She's a beautiful young woman (Missy Crider) who was a former girlfriend of the governor's. Just to make Wyler's job a little harder, she tells him she did it. She says she walked in, found him in bed with another woman, and shot them both.
But in episode two, which takes place over a few days in October, her confession begins to seem phony.
Intrigued? The story is good and it's told with considerably more tension than last year's. But there are many irritants. Too many of the characters are snippy, career-obsessed creeps. The writers of the show apparently assume the legal profession is just as creep-ridden as show business is.
More injurious is the fact that producer Bochco's semi-talented wife, Barbara Bosson, is back again as a prosecutor, overacting to the hilt. TV viewers have had plenty of opportunity to see real televised trials - O.J. Simpson's most conspicuous among them, of course - and they know that in court, lawyers don't always snarl when they say ``objection'' or shoot a smirking glower at the opposition when bail is denied to a client, as Bosson does.
Even so, the drama has sparks and fireworks, the production is glossy and deluxe, and the first case full of tantalizing complications even in its early stages. ``Murder One'' airs opposite NBC's powerhit ``Seinfeld,'' but for viewers who want something other than a giggle, it's a very inviting alternative.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB