Television Reviews : Head-Bashing ‘Hawk’ Doesn’t Fly as a Role Model

The most you can say for “A Man Called Hawk” (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42 at 9 tonight) is that it’s an hourlong series with a black star. There haven’t been many such shows. Because it’s often presumed that hourlong series turn out more exemplary role models than do sitcoms, “Hawk” may receive a few cheers simply for having broken the racial mold.

On the other hand, if parents had to choose between Hawk and, say, Dr. Cliff Huxtable (of “The Cosby Show”) as a role model, no one would choose Hawk. He’s a big, gun-toting, head-bashing man of mystery. The press release for the series says Hawk’s mission is “to do good for good people,” but he doesn’t do much of anything for anyone in the opening episode.

He does serve as an intermediary between an old friend and the intelligence agents whom the man had deserted, but the body count at the end of the hour is graphic proof of Hawk’s lack of diplomatic skills. At the end, he gives a pep talk to an injured youth about going on with life, but the inspirational uplift comes out of nowhere; we don’t even understand what his relationship to this kid is.

Avery Brooks glowers well as Hawk, but the character (who was spun off from “Spenser: For Hire”) is tediously stiff and somber--the kind of guy who says “affirmative” instead of “yes.” Perhaps he took lessons from his maxim-spouting mentor (Moses Gunn), who flatters Hawk--to put it mildly--by telling him he’s much like W.E.B. DuBois: They’re both “nomads” and “fighters,” and “causes mean much” to them.

Hawk’s chief cause seems to be a fondness for Washington, D.C., where the story is set.