Fox's 'Brimstone': A Helluva Way to Start By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 23, 1998

It is in fact Horton playing Stone, a kind of bounty hunter from Hell, in a creepy new drama series called "Brimstone," premiering at 8 tonight on Channel 5. Beautifully shot and directed by the inventive Felix Enriquez Alcala (like Horton, one of the executive producers), the premiere episode is nevertheless excessively gloom-and-doomy. Horton and cohorts are reportedly taking steps to lighten things up, however, and the third episode, airing Nov. 6 and also provided for preview by Fox, indicates they're after an aura of grim whimsy that would make "Brimstone" smart and distinctive.

That episode, called "Heat," guest-stars Chad Morgan as Gwen, a seductive young woman with an unfortunate tendency to burn her lovers up when she embraces them. Morgan is mordantly enchanting, and the show has flashes of wit. If it had run as the first episode, "Brimstone" would be getting better reviews today.

Why oh why did they have to start off instead with a story about a fallen priest who seduces and kills altar boys? This is sickening. The episode even includes a seduction in the men's room. While the content is lamentable, however, the style is sizzling; Alcala, who has also directed five episodes of "ER," gives "Brimstone" a truly haunted and haunting look. Other shows have specialized in the gritty-grungy style, but Alcala has concocted a new strain of grit-grunge that is truly striking.

Rarely has something so sordid looked so gorgeous.

Heavy-duty suspension of disbelief is required to swallow the show's convoluted premise, but in these days of "The X-Files" and its clones, not to mention Kenneth Starr, that shouldn't be too hard. It seems that Ezekiel Stone was a hard-working cop in New York who went into understandable rage when his wife was raped in 1983. Stone tracked down the rapist and instead of arresting him, he killed him, which is not considered due process even in New York.

But he had higher authorities to answer to. Two weeks later, he was himself murdered while on duty and, because he'd killed a man in cold blood, was sent to Hell. One day the Devil made him a deal: If Stone would return to earth and track down 113 of the "vilest souls" who'd ever lived – and had also managed to make an escape from Hades – he could have the rarest gift in the world: his life back. And, presumably, his wife back, once she got over the shock of seeing him again.

It's "Dead Man Stalking," a "Fugitive"-in-reverse with supernatural flourishes galore. The good news for Stone is that since he's dead, he can't be killed. He can fall off buildings and take bullets in the leg and still get up again, and he does just those things in the premiere. But the bad news is that his prey can't be killed in the normal way either. He has to destroy their eyes because, notes the Devil, the eyes are the windows of the soul.

What a complicated setup – so complicated that it's explained over and over in the premiere. John Glover very convincingly plays the Devil, who may materialize at any moment to needle Stone and commit miscellaneous mischief. In that third episode, for example, Stone finds the Devil posing as a college counselor, giving advice to a bosomy coed. When she leaves his office, the Devil tells Stone: "Sweet kid. I'm trying to get her on the wrong path."

Horton plays Stone very tersely, like Clint Eastwood's "man with no name" in the old Sergio Leone westerns, albeit with more dialogue. His alleged sex appeal may be enough to draw viewers to the show, but whether they will want to return after tonight's yecchy opener is problematic.

"Brimstone" was originally intended to air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. starting next week. But because Fox has had so many new-season flops, it was moved to Fridays at 8 – too early for such grisly material. Of course, what does Fox care? They're not exactly conscience-stricken over there – just desperate. Keep in mind that the unsavory pilot is the episode that persuaded Fox to pick up the show in the first place. This is not a nice network.

Under the heading of full disclosure, your friendly neighborhood TV critic points out that a very good friend of his recently signed on as a consultant to the producers of the show. Said friend had nothing to do with either of the episodes previewed herein.

Also it should be mentioned that shooting people's eyes out "Brimstone"-style turns out not to be as gross as it sounds. Blood doesn't gush. Instead, a strange blue ethereal ray shoots out of the eye sockets as the evil fiend is dispatched down Beelzebub way.

For all the unpleasantness of the premiere, this does seem a series with a solid moral underpinning. For if there is a Satan and a Hell, it has to follow that there is a God and a Heaven, something most TV shows don't bring up. And accepting the concept that there is evil afoot in the world hardly requires much imagination. Sometimes when you watch TV you may indeed feel that you are looking it right in the face.

In Episode 3, the sexy woman who's fled Hell describes it as a place where "everything you want is just out of reach." What "Brimstone" wants to be seems just out of its reach, too, but there are signs it could evolve into the devilishly witty thriller it ought to be.

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