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Smith

 (Series -- CBS, Tue. Sept. 19, 10 p.m.)

By BRIAN LOWRY

Ray Liotta is a criminal mastermind who must balance work with his suburban life in CBS' new drama 'Smith,' from John Wells.

Filmed in Los Angeles by John Wells Prods. in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, John Wells, Christopher Chulack, Brooke Kennedy, Scott Gemmill; producers, Patrick Ward, Andrew Stearn; director, Chulack; writer, Wells.
 
Bobby Stevens - Ray Liotta
Hope Stevens - Virginia Madsen
Annie - Amy Smart
Jeff - Simon Baker
Tom - Jonny Lee Miller
Joe - Franky G
Agent Dodd - Chris Bauer
Charlie - Shohreh Aghdashloo
 

Big-time robberies possess an obvious allure in features, filled as they are with suspenseful escapes and the constant threat of capture. Transplanting the caper genre to TV, however, has been a tough nut to crack, as evidenced by the recently aborted runs of FX's "Thief" and NBC's "Heist." Enter "Smith," a series with a marquee cast, sumptuous cinematic look and enviable creative pedigree that again seeks to reverse the cops-and-robbers formula, thrusting the bad guys into the spotlight. Interesting but not fully compelling, it's a long shot to make a big score.

Producer John Wells has certainly brought out the big guns, with Ray Liotta as Bobby Stevens, the mastermind behind a crew of high-tech thieves; and Virginia Madsen as his wife, Hope, with whom he shares an outwardly idyllic suburban life that resembles an early Spielberg movie.

Not surprisingly, in scripting the pilot, Wells offers unexpected gradations in the characters as he goes about a little too gradually introducing Bobby's team, from hit man/ladies' man Jeff (Simon Baker) to the cool Vegas showgirl Annie (Amy Smart) to Tom (Jonny Lee Miller), the recent parolee with whom she shares a past.

Smartly opening with a major museum heist that has clearly not gone according to plan, "Smith" (the feds' designation for the unknown brains of the outfit) flashes back and forth to Bobby and Hope's interaction -- he travels a lot; is she beginning to suspect something? -- as well as preparation for the museum job.

When they finally do go into action, it's a grand-looking set piece, with the thieves outfitted in black with full-face Phantom of the Opera-type masks, racing down corridors and Taser-ing those who get in the way before the inevitable unforeseen wrinkle. (To accommodate the additional exposition, premiere will air with limited interruption.)

Liotta brings just the right mix of family man and thinly veiled menace to the role, as does Madsen as the housewife with a darker side than initially meets the eye. Think of them as the couple in Michael Mann's "Thief," had he actually managed to balance kids-and-a-mortgage bliss with drilling his way to fortune.

Baker, Smart, Miller and Franky G (who starred in Wells' short-lived Fox series "Jonny Zero") also make for a promising posse, as does Chris Bauer ("The Wire"), shown briefly as the ostensible Javert on Bobby's tail.

For all that, though, the premiere doesn't fully crackle, and there's good cause for skepticism about whether this premise can be milked well enough to be sustained as a series -- especially with the baddest "Law & Order" of them all as competition. Indeed, from that perspective, even if "Smith" and company can elude that G-man, the "Law" might still catch up with them.

Camera, Jonathan Freeman; production design, Hilda Stark; editor, Adam Wolfe; music, Doug DeAngelis; casting, John Frank Levey. Running time: 60 MIN.