CBS Airs ‘Internal Affairs,’ ‘Raising Miranda’

“Internal Affairs” is one of those good old-fashioned police mysteries that involves you almost from start to finish.

Director Michael Tuchner pushes the right suspense buttons and scriptwriter William Bayer keeps you on edge with his shrewd deployment of twists, U-turns and dead ends in a good cops/bad cops puzzler airing in two parts, Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. on CBS (Channels 2 and 8).

This is Frank Janek II, with Richard Crenna reprising his role as the talented New York police detective who solved the murders of two decapitated women in the 1985 miniseries “Doubletake.”

Women are again the victims as Janek and his same dependable partner Aaron Greenberg (Cliff Gorman) this time investigate the connection between two bizarre murders 13 years and thousands of miles apart. Is it possible that the same person committed both?

As we contemplate that, Bayer also gives us a subplot to ponder as Janek, now a lieutenant in the Internal Affairs Division, is tipped off about two corrupt cops by his old boss, Chief Hart (Lee Richardson). Yes, that’s the same murderous Chief Hart who was sent to jail by Janek in “Doubletake.”

Why would Hart now help his old foe? Why does gallery owner Joanna Gates (Kate Capshaw) have the hots for the much older Janek? How is narcotics detective Jerry Renfrew (Dennis Boutsikaris) linked to the murders? And what will Greenberg learn from a former Vietnamese madam in Tampa, Fla.?

There’s nice work here by Crenna, a reliable actor who never seems to give a bad performance whether he’s an appendage to Rambo or occupying center stage. Capshaw helps give the romance credibility. And, although the exciting Gorman is inevitably squandered as anyone’s right-hand man, his energy is something that you feel even in small spurts.

Part 2 of “Internal Affairs” does slow down a bit, and, unlike most good thrillers, the suspense slackens dramatically as the conclusion nears. There are times also when Janek seems almost too perfect to be true and his demographically perfect Internal Affairs unit too reminiscent of TV’s stock crime-fighting squads that handle the tough cases that baffle everyone else.

However, perfection is a flaw that you can accept in a production that’s first-rate and compellingly mysterious in so many other ways.

You need radar to find the laughs in the new CBS comedy “Raising Miranda.”

It premieres at 8:30 tonight (on Channels 2 and 8), introducing one of those TV families that appear to live in another world. It sure isn’t this one.

Nearing her 15th birthday, Miranda (Royana Black) is now being raised by her contractor father, Donald Marshack (James Naughton), after her free-spirited mother left their Racine, Wis., house one day and never returned. Also sharing the place is the mother’s brother, Russell (Bryan Cranston), a slow-talking, slovenly slug who sounds like a dope head and is immediately expendable.

Black has a nice, unslick quality, but is adrift in creator/co-producer Jane Anderson’s opening story, which finds the family trying to adjust with one less member and Miranda resisting being patronized by her classmates over her mother’s walkout.

The few nice moments between father and daughter are overwhelmed by audience laughter that comes out of nowhere and sounds electronically sweetened.

Written by co-producer Martha Williamson, next week’s second episode begins more promisingly, as the father does something that most parents can appreciate when he punishes Miranda for violating rules that he never really set. Unlike most teen-agers, however, Miranda’s reaction is essentially so benign that it defies credibility. Typical of TV’s unreal younger set, she is rebellious, but not too rebellious, and by episode’s end everyone is again lovey-dovey.

Saccharine teens who walk on water are the kind you want to raise yourself, not watch someone raise in a sitcom.