Sci Fi’s series ‘Invisible Man’ funny, sarcastic

Sci Fi Channel’s newest offering offers a new twist on an old concept.

“The Invisible Man,” debuting at 8 tonight, has little to do with the old Claude Rains movie. For one thing, it’s funny and sarcastic, in an indie-film kind of way.

The titular character is Darien Fawkes, a small-time thief. He gets busted a third time, ironically while trying to save an elderly gentleman he had surprised into a heart attack, and faces life in prison. Instead, his genius scientist brother offers him an out — be a guinea pig for his latest experiment.

The poor schlub gets the “Quicksilver Gland” implanted in his brain. This organism enables him to turn invisible at will, by refracting light around himself. Unfortunately, Quicksilver proves addictive and can lead to madness, and Darien needs to be given regular injections of a counteragent.

Thanks to a spy within the program, the situation soon deteriorates, and Darien ends up having to hook up with the experiment’s sponsoring intelligence agency, a ramshackle group that’s being funded this year by the Department of Fish and Game (they had a surplus).

So Darien has traded one prison for another. He performs missions, with the aid of jaded agent Bobby Hobbes, in exchange for a regular supply of the counteragent which keeps him sane.

As Darien, Vincent Ventresca (“Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” “Boston Common”) is the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, who finds himself in one mess after another. Veteran character actor Paul Ben-Victor (“Crazy in Alabama,” “The Three Stooges” TV movie) is a heady breath of bitter air as his misanthropic partner.

It will be interesting to see how “The Invisible Man” materializes. The two-hour pilot had a healthy dose of humor, but the first one-hour-long episode, set for June 16, was more serious and thought-provoking. The series needs to find a consistent direction.

This show does provide a new antihero to follow for the viewers who enjoyed “The Pretender” and “Now and Again,” both recently cancelled by shortsighted network execs, as it mines the same vein of an outsider trying to do good within a corrupt system.