TV Review : ‘Mancuso’: Last Shall Be One of the Worst

The only redeemable component of last season’s appalling NBC miniseries “Favorite Son” was Nick Mancuso, a surly FBI agent who somehow emerged from this tawdry production untainted and fit for recycling.

Hence, “Mancuso FBI,” airing at 10 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39. It’s the last of the new fall series, and one of the worst, driving a potentially interesting character played by a good actor (Robert Loggia) into the ground.

That isn’t surprising, given that the co-executive producer of the spinoff is Steve Sohmer, who also created “Favorite Son” from his novel of the same name. And Sohmer’s co-executive producer and the director of tonight’s premiere is Jeff Bleckner, who also directed “Favorite Son.”

Their lack of restraint in “Favorite Son” carries over to “Mancuso FBI.”

When the secretary of a nominee for Secretary of Defense with a reputation for womanizing is discovered drowned in his pool, Mancuso is dispatched to investigate. By being easily snookered at almost every turn in the case, however, he immediately loses credibility as a character, substituting bombast and histrionics for intelligence. Not that an FBI agent has to be smart, only that this one is so unsmart--and ready to jump to conclusions and make wild charges based on weak or no evidence--that you wonder how he can still draw a paycheck.

Mancuso is less investigator than bully, a loud, frothing, coarse, insulting, obnoxious, one-man tornado whom Loggia revs up so high that you want to gag him and tell him to calm down. Seething is one thing, but director Bleckner lets Loggia roar out of control.

Meanwhile, the script by Sohmer and producer Ken Solarz is so preposterous that it approaches farce. “This country is precious to us, but it is no more precious than our marriage,” the Cabinet nominee’s wife tells Mancuso. Does anyone really speak that way?

You do a double take when a TV reporter willingly gives Mancuso the name of a highly sensitive anonymous source. You do another when the reporter doesn’t even wince when Mancuso confronts the source. And, finally, you do a third at the comically maudlin and inept ending.

No more, please! Uncle! Uncle!