It's time to put "Murder One" out of its misery

By JOYCE MILLMAN

Steven Bochco has had his share of hits ("NYPD Blue," "L.A. Law," "Hill Street Blues"), misses (don't feel bad if you don't remember "Capitol Critters"), hits that should have been misses ("Doogie Howser, MD") and misses that were more interesting than some of his hits ("Cop Rock"). But until his most recent ABC drama series, "Murder One," Bochco had never had a hit that dissolved so fast into a miss.

When it premiered last September, "Murder One" had the benefit of both an intriguing premise -- the show would follow one (fictional) murder trial for an entire season -- and a national appetite for courtroom theatrics whetted by more than a year of O.J. coverage. And Bochco and co-producers David Milch, Charles Eglee and Channing Gibson followed through with a smashing opening episode.

The pilot seemed to be setting the stage for an epic battle of wills between two cucumber-cool characters played by two quietly intense actors. In one corner was high-priced yet principled Los Angeles defense attorney Teddy Hoffman (Daniel Benzali); in the other was his smirking socialite client Richard Cross (Stanley Tucci), who was accused of the sex slaying of his mistress's wayward 16-year-old sister. Throw in a tightly wound LAPD detective played by Dylan Baker as a cross between Bruce Dern and Mark Fuhrman, and you had what looked like a grand buffet for courtroom drama connoisseurs.

But by the fourth episode (or "chapter," as the installments are labeled), it was obvious that something had gone very wrong. Sure, "Murder One'' was being slaughtered in the ratings by its time-slot competition "ER," but it didn't help that the story was advancing so slowly -- nothing was happening -- that it was even turning off viewers who wanted to give the show a chance.

From a business standpoint, ABC did the only sensible thing in pulling "Murder One" off the schedule after eight episodes. Last Monday, "Murder One" returned in a theoretically friendlier time period (10 p.m. Mondays) opposite CBS's medical drama "Chicago Hope." ABC tried to drum up some excitement with ads promising that viewers would "get caught up in 'Murder'!" And, during its banishment, Bochco had done some tinkering with the format, easing up on the recycled "L.A. Law" subplots involving Hoffman's young associates.

Actually, those subplots weren't so bad, considering the alternative was an hour of Benzali's unrelieved dourness. Watching the comeback episode last week ("Chapter Nine"), it was more obvious than ever that "Murder One's'' problems can't be blamed on "ER," pesky subplots or O.J. Overload. Benzali is miscast, and that's that.

---

Next page: Tucci Rationing