TV Reviews : Little Fire in Ho-Hum ‘Third Degree Burn’

“He’s not stupid, but he has a weakness. He’s a fool for love, a sucker for an old-fashioned romance.”

That’s how private eye Scott Weston (Treat Williams) is described in “Third Degree Burn” (Home Box Office, Sunday at 8 p.m.), and it’s fairly accurate.

Hired by a jealous husband (Richard Masur) to trail a beautiful young wife (Virginia Madsen) while she visits a desert spa, Weston falls into bed and into love with the woman.

When the two of them return to Seattle, they resume their affair, nuzzling in public places without a second thought, even though both know full well how jealous the husband is. But then someone is murdered, followed by the usual complications.

They’re a bit too usual--the script by Duncan Gibbons and Yale Udoff trods familiar territory. And, natch, in the tradition of film noir, the plot becomes fairly impenetrable as it nears its end. It’s easy not to spill the beans on this one, for it’s hard to figure out exactly where those beans are.

Under Roger Spottiswoode’s direction, Williams and Madsen do create some sizzle in their early scenes together. Yet the film’s look is generally as conventional as its script. There’s something perfunctory about the whole enterprise.

At least the casting offers something unusual in the intriguing presence of CCH Pounder as Weston’s ex-wife and continuing assistant, who happens to be black.