Television review: Cut to the proverbial ‘Chase’

Jerry Bruckheimer’s “Chase,” which premieres Monday on NBC, delivers just what its name promises, and not much more. It consists mainly of that very thing we are often aphoristically asked to cut to, with just enough banter and back-story to let you know that these are in fact humans we are watching and not just exceptionally well-coordinated robot drones.

Leggy blond Kelli Giddish (“Past Life”) is a federal marshal running down fugitives in the wide state of Texas. We are told by a title card, and then again by a character, that “Last year, U.S. marshals apprehended more than 90,000 of America’s most violent and dangerous criminals,” a number that, though official, sounds incredible in more ways than one.

In the first episode, the feds of “Chase” catch two, one before the opening credits, in a foot chase that takes Giddish and partner Cole Hauser through the streets of Fort Worth, amid parading cattle, across a rodeo ring and down a tunnel, where Giddish takes out the fleeing felon with some twirly kicks — though not before this mid-fight, comic-book exchange:

“Didn’t your mother teach you, girls shouldn’t play with guns?”

“My mother died when I was 8. So, no.” She also has father issues.

Next, the marshals hunt a sentimental sociopath with a Waylon Jennings fixation (hunky Travis Fimmell), which allows Giddish to sing him a snatch of “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” The show can be more than a little silly, but you can’t say it isn’t fast-paced.

Later, their work done, they retire to what looks like a beer commercial, as if to say, yes, we are people too.

robert.lloyd@latimes.com