NBC's Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector fails to shake up the network crime procedural drama

Variety

"In its pilot episode, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector makes a big show of shaking up the usual procedural formula (different timelines! elaborate fakeouts! explosives!), but nonetheless follows the lead of umpteen serial killer stories so closely that it ends up a paint-by-numbers collision of predictable tropes," says Caroline Framke of the NBC drama starring Russell Hornsby, Arielle Kebbel and Michael Imperioli. "Rhyme speaks exclusively in clichés or outright word salad nonsense ('turns out the broken take better care of the broken'?) that everyone’s impressed reactions indicate are supposed to be unusually smart and poignant. Kebbel, a perpetually underused actor, does her level best to make Amelia as interesting as the script insists she is, but can only dodge the obstacles of her lines so often. How well their partnership goes — or more accurately, how well the actors can sell it — from this point forward could determine the fate of the show. But given its introduction, it will be an uphill climb for the show to get anywhere particularly compelling."

ALSO:

• Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector has a horrible title with an average pilot: "It's a good thing for Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector that I'm a TV series critic and not a TV series title critic , because Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector is as bad a title as any broadcast show has been saddled with in recent years, and I'm including Cougar Town and Trophy Wife," says Daniel Fienberg. "Yes, it was bad when the series was simply called Lincoln, because nobody's first thought when they hear 'Lincoln' is 'Oh right, the only Denzel Washington performance that didn't get him an Oscar nomination.' But the revised title is a nonsensical mouthful that causes my tongue to break out in hives. It's awful. As a show, Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector isn't awful."
• Russell Hornsby says he isn't trying to outdo Denzel Washington's Bone Collector role: “It’s Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector for a new generation,” he says. “And for this generation, I think you need to tell the stories differently and you need to inject them with a different kind of energy than what was had before.”
• Hornsby explains Lincoln Rhyme plot twists: "We're basket weaving in a lot of ways"