TV REVIEW : ‘Matrix’: A Bad Turn for Good

“Once an agent of death, I must now become a force for life,” states the protagonist of “Matrix,” a weekly series premiering at 10 tonight on USA cable.

Nick Mancuso is Steven Matrix, a “debonair but deadly” former Mob killer who--for reasons that USA says will be clarified in future episodes--is now being coerced by supernatural powers to help his victims. How does he help the ones who are dead? Don’t ask.

Matrix always comes out on top because, well, he’s Matrix. Tonight he rescues a dumb slug of a parolee named Eddie who was wrongfully convicted of a murder that Matrix himself committed. The ex-con has been targeted for extinction by the victim’s vengeful daughter, a cop.

Matrix tells the terrified Eddie: “You’re like a bad politician, kid. You just keep running.” That’s a rare good line in a script that is so lacking in surprises that virtually every big scene is predictable.

Moreover, Mancuso is never as menacing as he should be, and he’s required to end the episode with a sanctimonious speech that, like a bad show, just keeps running.

Here’s for bringing back the agent of death.