`The Beat’ sets pace as strong UPN show

Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana have the unfortunate distinction of creating intense TV shows that critics love but to which most viewers can’t warm.

Despite NBC’s best attempts to kill it, their “Homicide” survived for six seasons. It was powerful and challenging, yet it was too much for some viewers, who expect black-and-white morality on cop shows, not the gray kind accepted by the jaded murder detectives of “Homicide.” Besides, there was all that gallows humor and weird-angle camerawork that should only be used in art films.

Next came “Oz” on HBO, which depicted the harsh reality of prison life, complete with brutal violence, homosexuality and racism. Despite a talented ensemble cast, “Oz” also has proven too severe for many viewers.

Now Levinson and Fontana have come up with what must be considered their most accessible TV work. “The Beat,” which debuts at 9 tonight on UPN, is another cop show, but it’s a little lighter and less cynical in tone than “Homicide.” But only a little.

The protagonists in “The Beat” are two young beat cops. Mike Dorigan (played by Derek Cecil) is the more serious of the pair. He comes from a family of firefighters, but chose police work because he “can’t stand fires.” A career-minded patrolman, he just got engaged to Elizabeth, a young med student (played by Poppy Montgomery, “Relativity”).

His partner, Zane Marinelli (Mark Ruffalo, “You Can Count on Me”), partied through his 20s. He became a cop because his father, who he believes is innocent, was convicted of killing his mother. He’s entwined with mentally unstable Beatrice (Heather Burns, “You’ve Got Mail”), whom he dated and bedded and who is now stalking him.

“The Beat” concentrates primarily on the action the two young NYC cops see in the field, but also includes a healthy amount of their personal lives. The pair are the creators’ tabula rasas, reacting to man’s inhumanity to man as it happens around them.

What is jarring is Levinson and Fontana’s decision to use both traditional film and videotape footage in “The Beat.” The look changes, not scene by scene, but almost frame by frame, with no rhyme nor reason. It’s distracting, and screams, “Look at me. I’m being artsy” while adding nothing to the story.

That quibble aside, “The Beat” instantly becomes one of the two strongest shows on UPN (big accomplishment!), along with its flagship, “Star Trek Voyager.” Any of the other networks should be glad to have it, but past records show they wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.