'FUGITIVE' READY FOR ANOTHER RUN.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Can ``The Fugitive'' work as a sustained series in the 21st century? The original series, which ran from 1963 to 1967 on ABC, was, besides a superb suspense thriller, a subtly sophisticated creation that may have introduced the idea of existentialism to mainstream TV audiences (followed quickly, of course, by ``Gilligan's Island,'' or `` 'No Exit' for Dummies'').

Wrongly accused of his wife's murder and marked for death, Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) escaped from his captors and peripatetically wandered the U.S.A. Like a mythic western hero, he helped folks he encountered along the way but was never able to befriend anyone for long before moving on. He stayed just a step ahead of the obsessively persistent Detective Gerard (Barry Morse) and a step behind ``the one- armed man,'' the villain who in fact had killed Kimble's wife. The satisfying finale was the most-watched episode of American television until folks had to know who shot J.R.

Until ``The X-Files,'' ``Fugitive'' was the longest-running goal-oriented series - let's face it, just as we get impatient with TV characters who flirt endlessly without sharing a meaningful kiss, we likewise can become irritated with narrative wheel-spinning simply to sustain a series' conceit. ``The X-Files'' has continuously redefined its conspiracy, and lost significant numbers of viewers along the way. And the 1993 Harrison Ford vehicle resolved itself within a scant two hours, a considerably shorter time than Janssen's never-ending ordeal.

Which brings us to the new ``Fugitive'' - it's a lean action machine, handsomely produced and well cast with Tim Daly as Kimble and Mykelti Williamson as Gerard. Tonight's premiere - with a crack-up that's pretty impressive, even if it won't make anyone forget the movie's train wreck - takes Kimble from Chicago to Miami, where he finds itinerant work on a high rise managed by a corrupt contractor.

In two episodes, Kimble will jump off three bridges, a skyscraper and the back of a semi truck (and sport nary a bruise). He helps two highly empathetic women (with nary a lipstick smudge) and repeatedly spares Gerard's life. Kimble's decency - his determination to set justice right, rather than just high-tail it for Canada - is his damnation.

So what if it still stretches credibility that the one-armed man didn't leave any evidence behind at the murder scene? (An hour later on CBS, William Petersen, playing a forensic investigator on ``C.S.I.,'' will categorically declare, ``There is always a clue.'') So what if our age of computer accessibility makes it exponentially harder for someone to disappear into the woodwork of society, particularly if one is prone to the sort of do-gooderism that becomes small-town newspaper stories (which Gerard could find today on the Internet)? So what if Kimble makes a couple of narrow escapes that aren't so much explained as shrugged off by cutting to the next scene? So what if several people have already witnessed the one-armed man firing a gun repeatedly at Kimble, which would seem to be some powerful exonerating evidence in an appeals trial?

So what? ``The Fugitive'' is a quintessential television tale, and those at the helm of the new incarnation are fairly respectful of the franchise. Writers obviously will have to make Kimble a lot less single-minded than in these early episodes, more like he was in the original series. But they have a sympathetic hero and a whole country full of stories to explore. This new ``Fugitive'' won't be the sensation the original was, but it should be a solid success for CBS on Friday nights - note that many female characters figure in, in an effort to wean women from ``Providence'' - and would probably do even better on almost any other night of the week.

``THE FUGITIVE''

What: Remake of the classic '60s TV drama (and '90s hit movie) about a man on the lam looking for his wife's murderer.

The stars: Tim Daly, Mykelti Williamson.

Where: CBS (Channel 2).

When: 8 p.m. Fridays.

Our rating: Three stars

`C.S.I.' stands up as solid police procedural

Quick - guess what ``C.S.I.'' stands for? While you're doing that, understand that generally, it helps shows to have unambiguous titles that give people a nominal idea of what's going on just by checking the newspaper's TV listings. Now, think of all the sundry cop-show cliches that have gone unused to this day that would be catchier than referring to police forensics detectives conducting a ``Crime Scene Investigation.''

Kinda just rolls off the tongue, no?

Too bad - ``C.S.I.'' is actually a most agreeable little police procedural, demonstrating with panache the minutiae that police must consider before solving crimes. Likewise, it boasts a strong cast, led by William Petersen as Gil Grissom, a dedicated Las Vegas forensics investigator with a quirky streak (for one, he keeps snacks in the same refrigerator that stores urine samples). His supporting cast is top-notch, too - Marg Helgenberger (whom CBS is rewarding for putting in hazardous duty on the JonBenet Ramsey miniseries) is a single mom who loves her daughter, but really loves her work. George Eads provides comic relief, and Gary Dourdan plays a crack investigator with a race-related temper and a gambling habit.

Tonight's premiere episode zips through a series of investigations with no muss, no fuss, just a lot of fascinating nuts-and-bolts operations. An apparent suicide is determined to be a murder (incorporating a re-enactment of the bullet hitting the victim's viscera, a la ``Three Kings''), as is an apparent self-defense killing. Fingerprints and latex marks figure in prominently, as is to be expected, as does lots of gadgetry, which seems like overkill only once - Petersen drags a high-tech, sensitive-lighting gizmo into a suspect's bathroom to search for toenail fragments, when there are Cat Chow-sized chunks all over the place that the human eye, imperfect as it is, could've detected, no prob.

``C.S.I.'' comes to us courtesy of executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and those familiar with the blockbuster movie producer's oeuvre may be surprised at how smart it is. There is one typical Bruckheimer plot, however, involving prostitutes who douse erogenous body parts with a knock-out potion, with gratuitous (if artily shot) flashbacks giving us every lurid detail of how the potion was in fact ingested. Thanks, Jer.

But, hey, give the show points for not bothering to wait until season's end before uncorking a cliffhanger. Tonight's premiere ends with a whopper, which is even more impressive given that we've just gotten to know these characters. ``C.S.I.'' is CBS' Friday night anchor; it's a perfect companion for lead-in ``The Fugitive'' and a lousy companion for lead-out ``Nash Bridges'' - and both statements are intended as compliments.

- D.K.

``C.S.I.''

What: Police procedural drama focusing on forensic investigations.

The stars: William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, George Eads, Gary Dourdan.

Where: CBS (Channel 2)

When: 9 p.m. Fridays.

Our rating: Three stars

There's not much 'Normal' (or good) here

``The Trouble With Normal,'' a sliver of a sitcom about a group of obsessively paranoid New Yorkers and their insecure therapist, seems like it rates an occasionally recurring sketch on a tepid late-night variety show, not a full-blown weekly series.

It has a standard-issue cast of crazies: Bob (David Krumholtz), the most nominally reasonable guy, is recovering from a broken heart. Zack (Jon Cryer) is the most aggressive whack job, a conspiracy theorist for whom no governmental secret is too sinister. Max (Brad Raider) and Stansfield (Larry Joe Campbell) are the dim sidekicks of Bob and Zack, respectively; and they all have a crush on - and comment freely on the loser boyfriend of - their group therapy shrink, Claire (Paget Brewster).

Tonight's episode sets up the series' premise, as all are united by their paranoia, even if they do distrust one another. Next week, Claire accompanies the boys as they attempt some fairly disastrous blind dates; Bob asks, ``How are my nose hairs?'' That's the general level of japery at work here. Characterizations and performances are so broad you get the feeling the show runners aren't even trying to convince viewers that they're watching anything but slumming actors spoofing wildly.

As singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn once noted, ``The trouble with normal is, it always gets worse.''

- D.K.

``THE TROUBLE WITH NORMAL''

What: Sitcom about Big Apple paranoiacs.

The stars: David Krumholtz, Paget Brewster, Jon Cryer, Brad Raider, Larry Joe Campbell.

Where: ABC (Channel 7).

When: 8:30 p.m. Fridays.

Our rating: Two stars

`Madigan': recycled blarney 

Gabriel Byrne seems right at home on the small screen, commanding it in ``Madigan Men'' in a way he occasionally seized the big screen (e.g., ``Millers Crossing,'' ``The Usual Suspects''). Too bad the vehicle supporting him is so rickety.

In ``Madigan Men,'' Byrne stars as Benjamin Madigan, a recently divorced architect who seems scarcely wounded by his wife's infidelity. Apparently a detached father - ``The last time I sat on your bed, I was reading you 'Harold and the Purple Crayon,' '' he tells his son - he's nonetheless, in the wake of his divorce, trying to reconnect with his teen-ager, Luke (John C. Hensley), who's quite popular with the girls.

One day - the first episode of the series, in fact - Benjamin's father, Seamus (Tony Award winner Roy Dotrice), a typical, blarney-spouting Irish codger, shows up in New York to give his son some grief. The usual generational paroxysms occur, to mild chuckles.

There's no faulting the cast - well, except for Grant Shaud, playing Benjamin's idiotically leering business partner in a depressingly hackneyed fashion - but the material is so recycled, one is half expecting the show to be honored by Friends of the Environment. The series feels like it should be on Nick at Nite already.

- D.K.

``MADIGAN MEN''

What: Sitcom about three generations of Irish men in New York.

The stars: Gabriel Byrne, John C. Hensley, Roy Dotrice.

Where: ABC (Channel 7).

When: 9:30 p.m. Fridays.

Our rating: Two and one half stars

Spam e-mail is scarier

It requires a sizable leap of narrative faith to plausibly plot Gothic spooks from four centuries back on the same continuum as the Internet's cyberwizardry. Even if you buy the premise, ``Freakylinks'' in no way rewards your willful suspension of disbelief.

Originally cooked up by some of the ``Blair Witch Project'' folks who have since distanced themselves from this bleary Fox project, ``Freakylinks'' should in no time find most audience members distancing themselves from it.

The title, such as it is, refers to a Web site that explores paranormal phenomenon. Our hero, Derek Barnes (essayed with occasional rudderless histrionics by Ethan Embry), was off investigating ``exploding lapdancers'' (just to give you a taste of this show's taste) when his twin brother, who created the site, committed suicide in a panic-stricken state a couple of years ago. (Beware any series that begins with a character saying, ``I didn't know it at the time, but nothing in my life would ever be the same again.'')

Or did he? An ongoing storyline will find Derek in search of his twin (think Mulder's quest for his sister in ``The X-Files''), while also investigating - with the requisite batch of moody/quirky/sexy co-stars - unexplainable oddities, particularly the legend of a strange shape-shifter in a colony that mysterious disappeared in the 1500s. (Said shape-shifter manifests itself today as a chic clubhopper.)

Oh, and Derek's brother apparently left behind a clue - which rocket-scientist Derek just discovers in tonight's premiere, two years after the guy's death - in his obsessive and ubiquitous home-decorating scheme.

It doesn't add up to much, and none of it's terribly persuasive. Derek himself sums it up best when he says, ``If I had been smart, I would've just shut the whole thing down.'' David Simkins, the show's executive producer, explained to TV Guide that ``it's the stuff you're not seeing that's the scariest.'' Must be - what you see here isn't frightening at all.

- D.K.

``FREAKYLINKS''

What: Thriller freakily linking the Internet and the paranormal.

The stars: Ethan Embry, Lisa Sheridan, Karim Prince, Lizette Carrion, Dennis Christopher.

Where: Fox.

When: 9 p.m. Fridays.

Our rating: Two stars

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1) Detective Gerard (Mykelti Williamson, left) is hot on the trail of Dr. Richard Kimble (Tim Daly) in CBS' remake of ``The Fugitive.''

(2) William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger are forensics specialists on the new drama ``C.S.I.''

(3) Paget Brewster, left, Jon Cryer, Larry Joe Campbell, David Krumholtz and Brad Raider star in the ABC sitcom ``The Trouble With Normal,'' premiering tonight.

(4) Gabriel Byrne, left, John C. Hensley and Roy Dotrice star in ABC's ``Madigan Men.''

(5) Ethan Embry stars in Fox's ``Freakylinks,'' connecting the Internet and the paranormal.