Liotta is a thief worth catching

Ray Liotta steals scenes - though he might not steal your heart - in CBS' "Smith" tonight at 10. (CBS Photo)

BY VERNE GAY | Newsday Staff Writer

September 19, 2006

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The humdrum title of this new drama from CBS won't fool anyone (and is certainly not meant to). "Smith" is a particularly well-crafted, well-acted drama from that dynamic duo that brought us "ER," John Wells and Chris Chulack.

But "Smith" - with Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen as a seemingly normal husband-and-wife team with the requisite pair of kids living in a plastic subdivision - is a tricky bird that pops this question: Can you, the viewer, fall for a bunch of skanky, murderous, scum-sucking thugs? Well, can you?

Indeed, to love "Smith" is to love an ice cube. There may be a cold beauty to the craftsmanship of this enterprise, but there's a pinched, frostbitten heart at the center of it as well. And if the prime-time drama is all about empathy - finding someone or something that's even tangentially relatable - then the verdict on "Smith" can now be rendered. No one, save a Tony Soprano, will care.

But "Smith" won't make it easy either. There's something about the aura of mystery that surrounds Madsen and Liotta's characters that'll bring people back for another look. Meanwhile, the sultry, smoky-voiced Iranian actress, Shohreh Aghdashloo ("24") also has a minor role here as a crime boss. She's reason enough to revisit.

By name alone, "Smith" purposely invokes that pop-culture Pop-Tart of 2005, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (Angelina Jolie was even once married to one of this show's stars, British actor Jonny Lee Miller). But "Smith" is mostly part of TV's recent embrace of the heist/serial drama format.

Bobby Stevens (Liotta) appears to have a normal job by day, but he actually runs a crew that engineers difficult and especially violent robberies. Meanwhile, his wife, Hope (Madsen), has her own secrets - not fully revealed in the pilot - though she does wonder what her loving husband does on all those business trips.

The crew includes Jeff (Australian Simon Baker from "The Devil Wears Prada" and star of TV's "The Guardian"), who's a weapons expert and assassin. Here is someone so practiced in his black art that he whistles while he works, and not only kicks cats but steals one, too. Tom (Miller) is his buddy and just out of prison. Annie (Amy Smart) has her own bag of tricks, but knows how to secure fake IDs. Joe (Franky G) is the gearhead - vital for the getaway.

The pilot involves a robbery at a Pittsburgh museum, resulting in one guard's death. The FBI, led by Chris Bauer ("The Wire"), then steps into the act. So expect the season, assuming there's a full one, to turn into a cat-and-mouse game, with more heists and more death. Wells and Chulack try to infuse some humanity into Bobby. Regrets? He's had a few, but probably not enough to make him fully human. And that could be "Smith's" Achilles heel.

SMITH. Brisk, efficient and casually cruel. But Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen ("Sideways") are the big-name, big-screen stars that will try to make you forget that. Series premieres tonight at 10 on CBS/2.

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