Star power, but 'Runaway' is static

Donnie Wahlberg stars in "Runaway," tonight on Ch. 11 (CW Photo)

BY VERNE GAY | Newsday Staff Writer

September 25, 2006

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You get a pair of talented and seasoned pros like Donnie Walhberg and Leslie Hope on the screen at the same time and you have - or should have - every expectation of something well-worth watching. So, what exactly happened to "Runaway?"

It's slow. It's dull. It's listless. As a viewing experience, this can be like doing laps in a vat of Jell-O. That said, there is still Walhberg ("Boomtown") and Hope ("24") over there on the tube: Maybe "Runaway" will eventually live up to its kinetic name.

Besides the on-screen pedigree - executive producer Darren Star ("Sex and the City") is the off-screen notable - "Runaway" is based on one of the classic formulas of TV: the fugitive, specifically, "The Fugitive." The man wrongly accused. The people who love him. The escape. Relentless pursuit by the law. The cop so driven that the chase no longer is about justice but about obsession. And because this is The CW: A pair of attractive teens also on the lam who still have to worry about the cute guy or girl in the homeroom class. The formula's familiar and the actors competent. You already know what's missing.

In his previous life - the life he hopes to get back some day - Paul Rader (Wahlberg) was an acclaimed lawyer in Maryland with a perfect family when something went horribly wrong, and even he can't be entirely sure what. In flashbacks, viewers learn that there was a murder while Rader was at the scene of the crime and, as such, became implicated. More flashbacks: Rader and his family are threatened by someone (the real killer?), forcing them into hiding.

Rader and his wife, Lily (Hope) carefully coach the children on their new identities after they find a rented home in an Iowa town, though the cover is tough to maintain when the story changes (Lily tells a cop they're Katrina refugees even though she and Paul had earlier agreed to say they were from Philadelphia) or when grade-school age son, Tommy (Nathan Gamble) can't remember his alias. Teen son Henry (Dustin Milligan) hates his life on the run, mostly because he had to leave his girlfriend behind in Maryland. Teen daughter Hannah (Sarah Ramos) kinda likes it, though, especially when she learns the high-school football player she has an eye on at school lives next door.

And so it goes. Drip. Drip. Drip. Now, will someone please turn on the faucet?

RUNAWAY. Straight out of "The Fugitive" mold. There are some stars here, but something's missing. Let's call it "excitement." Premieres tonight at 9 on The CW/11.

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