The gun, the dangling badge, the tight pants, the sleeveless protective vest revealing the sculpted biceps — the presentation of Gloria the blond homicide detective is typical television soft-core cop porn.
Gloria’s not just another pretty face. Actually, she is, and she plays rough, too.
This TV cop follows a long line of other female enforcers who variously reinterpret and use their femininity, updating the heroine model just enough to make it seem fresh with each TV reintroduction, in the course of righting wrongs and redressing crimes.
Gloria is like U.S. Marshal Annie Frost (Kelli Giddish) in “Chase,” but with a home life. A survivor like Anna Torv on “Fringe,” but without supernatural trappings. She’s like Mariska Hargitay on “Law & Order: SVU,” but without the jaw line. Like Holly Hunter in the old “Saving Grace,” minus the accent. Like all of them, Gloria holds a grudge and is occasionally moved to violent outbursts that make the men around her look like meek hangers-on.
Like Piper Perabo in “Covert Affairs,” she’s handy with a gun, but she also displays proficiency with a knife. Like all of them, she acknowledges her personal life is a mess.
Unlike these other tough babes in primetime, Gloria Sheppard, played by Ally Walker, is a divorced mother of two.
That means Lifetime’s new series, “The Protector,” premiering Sunday at 8 p.m., is a hybrid: family drama-meets- police procedural. “The Protector” is all about the domestic versus crimebusting juggling act. Isn’t every single parent honored and burdened to serve as The Protector?
Walker plays Gloria with the same underlying melancholy that she displayed in “Profiler,” apparently her default expression to telegraph seriousness.
The series began life as a CBS pilot under a different title and starring Geena Davis and Rosie Perez — but that wasn’t picked up.
In its new incarnation, “The Protector” has that basic cable feel — not too violent, not too complicated, and, per Lifetime, focusing on the strong woman who simultaneously must grapple with criminals and family crises. Keeping the world safe for democracy and the house running with clean laundry is more than a fulltime job.
Gloria is raising two boys while serving as an LAPD homicide detective. Women’s intuition plays as large a role as muscle or ammo in nailing the bad guys.
Her boys, Leo (Thomas Robinson, “Heroes”) and Nick (Sage Ryan, “The Closer”), are also looked after by sometimes erratic live-in Uncle Davey, Gloria’s troubled younger brother (Chris Payne Gilbert, “Dexter”).
The series also stars Tisha Campbell-Martin (“My Wife and Kids”) as Gloria’s partner Michelle Dulcett, and Miguel Ferrer (“Crossing Jordan,” “Traffic”) as their boss, Lieutenant Felix Valdez.
Don’t worry if your mind wanders. It may be more fun reminiscing about TV’s tough-babe cops than actually watching “The Protector.” But it’s a good starting point.
Et cetera
Glenn Beck and Tom Martino switch timeslots on KHOW (630 AM) beginning Monday. Martino will now air 9 a.m.-noon weekdays, and Beck moves to noon-3 p.m.
Beck’s syndicated radio show is not to be confused with his new online streaming “network,” GBTV, a web-based, subscription service he’s producing with his company, Mercury Radio Arts. The subscription service is expected to launch in September; Beck leaves Fox News at the end of June.
“The Event,” a disappointing, convoluted and low-rated sci-fi drama, was canceled by NBC in May. That should be the end of the story, except that rabid fans are not giving up. Neither is the show’s executive producer. Rumors suggest the SyFy network may revive “The Event” or wrap it up in miniseries form. SyFy is part of NBC Universal, so such a deal might make business sense. We’ll see.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
