AN ALL-TOO-FAMILIAR 'EXPERIENCE'.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

It seems almost redundant to do a biopic on Jimi Hendrix, since his life has pretty much served as the template for most rise-and-fall rock sagas, fictional and otherwise. Heck, given that his half-dozen original albums of material have been repackaged in dozens of different ways in the past three decades, he's inspiration for the back-and-better-than-ever stories, as well.

Nonetheless, Showtime gives us ``Hendrix'' at 8 p.m. Sunday, and it's got a lot of the usual show-biz cliches. It has an utterly unimaginative framing sequence - Jimi doing an interview about his career a few days before he died (with said device being telepic-ese for ``We throw in the towel; we have no idea as to how to make this fresh''). It charts the usual ebb and flow of a rocker's - even a brilliant rocker's - career.

It sort of soft-peddles the drugs but luxuriates in the groupies. It kills him off tastefully, off-camera, instead of depicting the gruesome outcome of his overindulgences. (Hendrix was one of the key influences for ``This Is Spinal Tap'' - the drummer who choked to death on someone else's vomit pays homage to Jimi. ``Hendrix'' returns the favor by depicting his manager as a British twit and including a few vaguely comic scenes of addled artistic hubris.)

But darned if the film doesn't do two major things right. It casts Wood Harris as Hendrix; he may not be a dead ringer for the guitarist, but he gets the easygoing strut and dazed demeanor of a rock superstar down cold, and he's appropriately electric in the concert sequences. It also allows for Hendrix's music to be played at length, so that viewers who might not know why people went batty for the guy 30 years back can get some idea of his noisy brilliance.

Hendrix played with a lot of musical icons before he became one himself - B.B. King, Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett and Sam Cooke, among others - but ``Hendrix'' only shows us a brief glimpse of him backing up Little Richard, who promptly fires the guitarist for upstaging him. Alas, the writers and producers are less interested in charting what must have been a very interesting and charmed life as Hendrix rubbed elbows with these influential artists than they are in dropping names, so quickly, Jimi's shuffled off to London, where he becomes an instant smash with his group, the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

From there, it's the same old, same old - his star rises, he becomes indulgent, he presses too hard and comes crashing down. Billy Zane gives a funny performance (intentionally, I hope) as Michael Jeffrey, Hendrix's manager, who is cast as the clueless villain of the piece. With a permed Beatles wig plopped on his noggin, groovy shades and an imperious cigarette foppishly dangling from his fingertips, Jeffrey insists Jimi pursue money, not art, and books him on a tour opening for the Monkees.

Viveca A. Fox has what amounts to a cameo as Jimi's long-suffering, underappreciated and mainly estranged girlfriend, who really didn't seem to have much of a bearing on his fate. ``Hendrix'' charts familiar territory, but with Harris onscreen and the musician's actual performances on the soundtrack, it's a worthwhile Experience.

``HENDRIX''

What: Biopic on the legendary guitarist/overindulger. The stars: Wood Harris, Billy Zane, Dorian Harewood, Viveca A. Fox. When: 8 p.m. Sunday Where: Showtime. Our rating: Three stars.

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Wood Harris stars as the rock legend who was more famous in death than life, in the Showtime drama ``Hendrix,'' premiering Sunday.