tv guide

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#262626" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="32e64643.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Killerinstinct</B></FONT><B>  </B><B> </B><B>|   </B><A HREF="instinct.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Killerinstinct"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>  /</B><A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Press"><U><B> Press</B></U></A><B> /</B></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#111111" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="32e64643.gif"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>tv guide</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="0812ce80.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="232" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="15" VSPACE="15"> <B>KILLER INSTINCT</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Starring Johnny Messner, Chi McBride (pictured), Kristin Lehman</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE SETUP:  Det. Jack Hale (Messner) heads up San Francisco's Deviant Crime</B></div> <div> <B>Unit, tracking the city's most twisted criminals - we're not kidding about that- with</B></div> <div> <B>the blessing of his boss (McBride) and the help of fellow detective Danielle Carter</B></div> <div> <B> (Lehman, who joins the show in the second episode).</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE TWIST: Hale is still grieving the death of his female partner, killed  in the line of</B></div> <div> <B>duty. His self-imposed hiatus may have included a stay in a mental institution.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE BUZZ: "I've worked on The X-files, and my partner (Ed Zuckerman) worked on Law &</B></div> <div> <B>Order, so this is a nice combination of the two", says executive producer Charlie Craig, calling</B></div> <div> <B>the show "fun and creepy. In one episode, we have a guy trying to achieve immortality by </B></div> <div> <B>using the Book of the Dead."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>WE SAY: Creepy enough, but where's the fun?  Grim and ghastly, this is hands down the season's most disgusting pilot, with a gruesome plot</B></div> <div> <B>involving the use of poisonous spiders to paralyze female victims before they're assaulted and killed. (Another  victim is caged in a house that's</B></div> <div> <B>booby-trapped with beetles.)  With Messner's monotone performance setting a soporific tone, the show will give you nightmares when it's not busy</B></div> <div> <B>putting you to sleep. Since the pilot, new producers and a new female lead have signed on. They have their work cut out for them.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE OUTLOOK: DOA</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>