‘My Own Worst Enemy’ intriguing action drama

TV can be the great rehabilitator for formerly young actors.

Just ask Rob Lowe, Charlie Sheen, James Spader, Jon Cryer and Kiefer Sutherland, among others.

Now it’s Christian Slater’s turn to try (it has worked well for his former “True Romance” co-star Patricia Arquette of “Medium”).

Slater is the star of the new NBC action drama “My Own Worst Enemy,” in which he plays a serious schizophrenic, which debuts at 10 tonight.

He plays Edward, a secret agent who can speak 13 languages, run a four-minute mile and is trained to kill. He works at Janus Headquarters for Mavis (Alfre Woodard). Edward has been implanted with another personality, Henry, a middle-class efficiency expert living in the burbs with his wife, Angie (Madchen Amick) and two kids.

All this works fine until the boundaries start to slip and the two personalities start showing up in the other’s environment. Edward can fake his way through Henry’s world, but Henry is woefully out of place in Edward’s.

“My Own Worst Enemy” is an interesting concept, and has a strong pedigree, with executive producers John Eisendrath (“Alias”), Jason Smilovic (“Kidnapped”) and David Semel (director of “American Dreams” and the “Heroes” and “Life” pilots).

And yet, NBC has done the show few favors, slotting it opposite CBS’ “CSI: Miami” and ABC’s “Boston Legal” and premiering it later than those two shows, giving it no chance to generate any buzz. Yes, it’s in a strong action lineup after “Chuck” and “Heroes,” but it lacks the humor those shows have.

So spy “My Own Worst Enemy” quickly, before it gets terminated.