'Peacemakers' revives the TV Western

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Ever wondered what a Western made for "Masterpiece Theater" would look like? Or what would happen if you ever crossed "The Virginian" with CSI"? In the unlikely event that you have, the "USA" cable network has the show for you.

"Peacemakers" is not radical television in any way. Its very traditionalism, indeed, is the core of its strength. But with far greater ease and skill than, say, Dick Wolf's troubled "Dragnet" for ABC, it melds contemporary sensibilities and fashion with far older genres.

"Peacemakers" was the surprise breakout hit of the cable world over the summer season and it has revived the career of its star. Tom Berenger has graced movies from "The Big Chill" to "Platoon" and played everything from satisfied yuppie to murderous combat veteran. But one senses he has finally found his career center of gravity as Marshal Jared Stone, a fast-on-the-draw but shrewdly slow-thinking marshal of rough-and tumble Rocky Mountain mining town Silver City, Colo., late in the 19th century.

Like Berenger himself, Stone is a grizzled old veteran who ought to be over the hill but in fact is just finding out, to his own surprise, that the most interesting and promising season of his life has just begun. For he finds himself taking on as his assistant former Scotland Yard and Pinkerton detective whiz Larimer Finch, played by Peter O'Meara, a towering young Irish heartthrob, but with brains. And Finch introduces Stone -- and the audience -- to the new detective science of photography, fingerprints and ballistics identification. Bright, attractive Lisa Carlson fills out the trio as spinster pathologist -- she went to medical school but returned home to run the family mortuary business -- Katie Owen.

Every episode fills out the classic old Western formula. It could be "Gunsmoke " set up in the Rockies. Pauline Kael, who loathed the great Western genre and eagerly danced on its grave, must be spinning in her own one at its success.

For the Western, despite occasional stunning movie triumphs like Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" or Kevin Costner's "Dancing With Wolves," has been away from the now-not-so-small screen for so long that even the most hackneyed and clichéd of old plots seem fresh when they are presented simply but shrewdly.

An old retired gunfighter with a surprisingly sensitive soul comes to town but cannot escape his own violent past. Starving, ruthless but noble Arapaho Indians are framed for a double murder motivated by romantic jealousy. A black widow schemes to thwart the last will and testament of the wealthy husband whom she had to kill precisely because he was a dying man.

The fresh twist, of course, is the forensic aspect. This works on two levels. First, it feeds off the amazingly powerful fashion of the moment that the "CSI" juggernaut and its equally successful spin-off "CSI: Miami" have launched in motion. But it also celebrates the robust technology of the late 19th century world, a civilization with a fraction of the energy and technical power available now at the drop of a pin, but whose own resources in harnessing the resources of nature and unlocking its secrets were vastly more impressive than our history-deficient world today usually cares to remember.

"Peacemakers" is a comfortable pleasure, like settling back into a worn old armchair and lowering a couple of brews from a six-pack. It is not demanding, but it delivers what it promises, has far better production values than a modest but cannily deployed budget would lead you to expect and maintains unity of atmosphere and theme, with some subtly unsettling pokes at old prejudices along the way.

But no show, however, well-conceptualized, can work without a star. William Petersen's slow, understated burn powers "CSI" and Berenger carries "Peacemakers." He has the physical toughness, presence and ease on a Western saddle to be the best TV frontier lawmaker since James Arness himself as Marshal Matt Dillon in the definitive "Gunsmoke." And he has more, a surprising sensitivity and sweetness. As the show progresses, he may well make a great romantic hero.

Berenger is no late 20th century café latte yuppie playing on a dude ranch. His body language and unfashionable, filled-out build suggest a man who has gotten through a tough and often thankless life on a steak and fries a day but is still not too old a dog to learn the new tricks of an amazing age.

Also, "Peacemakers" is gritty. It suggests the smoke, the stinks and the occasional allure of a rough and tumble cowboy town even if it does have its own rudimentary telephone exchange. The series is shot on location in the Canadian Rockies amid towering fir trees and craggy mountains ever wreathed in mist. Even the understated incidental and theme music, suggestive of a toned-down Sergio Leone classic Western with Clint Eastwood, is just right.

Returning this month for a new batch of first-run episodes, "Peacemakers" looks good to be around for some time. Strap on your trusty six-shooter, saddle up and ride over. But don't forget your box camera and your fingerprinting dust.