GOOD COP, BAD COP ...TV SHOWS, THAT IS.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

It's hard to keep track with the frequent changes in network schedules, but at this point, NBC, ABC and CBS devote about 21 hours of their prime-time schedules to crime and legal procedurals. This represents about a third of their schedules and doesn't even include Saturday programming, which tends to be repeats of their, yes, crime and legal procedurals.

So at this point, a new entry to the genre will, by necessity, have to offer something more inventive to break through. NBC's "Heist," debuting tonight, manages the feat; ABC's "The Evidence," also premiering this evening not so much.

"Heist" follows AMC's "Hustle" and precedes FX's upcoming "Thief" in focusing on the bad guys' point of view. Dougray Scott and Steve Harris play Mickey and James, respectively, skilled breaking-and-entering men preparing for the job of their lives: ripping off three Rodeo Drive jewelry stores during Oscar week, when the priciest baubles traverse their ostensibly well-secured doors.

While the two assemble their requisite colorful, bickering team, detective Amy Sykes (Michele Hicks) must rally her semi-competent charges to prepare for a spectacular crime all learned to expect, only minus the brilliance and conviction, and Sykes herself has, shall we say, major issues. Mickey has a tragic back-story that suggests the two will collide in a most messy fashion.

So the bad guys are better organized and, as so often seems to happen these days, much better-versed in cutting-edge technology.

The cast responds well to the droll dialogue, and tonight's caper is exceedingly clever, holding out the promise of plenty of cat-and-mouse fun as the series proceeds.

"The Evidence," on the other hand, bases its twist on something that's essentially a bit of a cheat: Each episode, viewers are shown, context-free, the evidence in the crime they're about to see committed and solved. The idea is that we're supposed to try to piece together the mystery before the cops do, but given how capriciously the revelation of said evidence is presented, that's not likely to happen. (Tonight, for example, one piece of the evidence presented in the opening doesn't come into play until one of the final scenes.) Which means, essentially, "The Evidence" is a standard-issue cop show with fancy dressing. Certainly, Orlando Jones (as the funny one) and Rob Estes (as the soulful one) could be playing in any cop show from the late '60s on, though the show itself feels like an invention of the '70s, with its evocation of paranoia of dark, big-city streets.

To their credit, their on-screen chemistry doesn't feel nearly as forced as their dialogue.

In the end, "The Evidence" tries something new, but not nearly new enough to balance everything about the series that feels exceedingly old.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

HEIST - Three stars

What: Exceedingly well-organized crooks plan a major jewelry theft; hapless cops struggle to keep up.

Where: NBC (Channel 4).

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: Stylishly cynical and witty, with clever plotting.

THE EVIDENCE - Two stars

What: Viewers are presented with a forensic examiner's evidence for a crime and then watch the mystery play out.

Where: ABC (Channel 7).

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: The twist proves surprisingly irrelevant; generic cop antics.

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Photo:

Rob Estes is ``the soulful one'' in ABC's ``The Evidence.''