'Stranded' leaves nodire plot point unturned
Hallmark Entertainment, always on the prowl for a Great Book to turn into Good TV, has turned to the story of the original castaways, the Swiss Family Robinson. As readers of Johann Wyss' book know, the family was shipwrecked on a tropical island. Unlike the participants in "Survivor," they didn't hold tribal councils and didn't get to leave after 39 days. "Stranded," a miniseries airing in two parts, 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on Hallmark Channel, is beautifully filmed, like most Hallmark fare. But the dire-sounding title gives you a pretty good idea where Hallmark's going with this production, which differs considerably from earlier movie versions of the "Swiss Family" story. Disney's 1960 "Swiss Family Robinson" - the best-loved adaptation of the 1813 book - featured romance, adventure, lots of laughs and cuddly animals. "Stranded" has persecution, murder, endless squabbling and an almost primal obsession with survival. This updated Swiss family story begins in a British courtroom, where Mr. Robinson (played by Liam Cunningham) is being sentenced to hard labor in Australia for his religious beliefs. His wife (Brana Bajic) and four children (none of whom sounds terribly Swiss) decide they will accompany him on the prison boat. During a storm and subsequent melee to abandon ship, one child is lost. He is put on a lifeboat with a group of pirates, who then raise him with buccaneer values. When he visits his family in Part 2, he has become a problem teen. Back at the island, Dad and the kids have run-ins over who knows best how to survive in the wild. Predictably, these arguments are decided in favor of the smarter and nobler children. Even on the South Seas, it seems there's no escaping Hollywood cliches. A bitterly contested union dispute inspired "American Standoff" (7 tonight, HBO), a humanistic documentary about 20th-century labor tactics and 21st-century economic realities. In 1999 Teamsters president James P. Hoffa Jr. picked a fight with Overnite Transportation, a mostly nonunion trucking company where organized labor has tried to expand its influence. The resulting strike has dragged on for nearly three years, with no end in sight, and with seemingly little effect on Overnite's bottom line. The film suffers somewhat from a lack of closure, though first-time director Kristi Jacobson had no control over that. She makes up for it, however, with some compelling subjects - not just Hoffa but the rank-and-file who work the picket lines and somehow keep the faith despite ever-shrinking odds of success. Bringing comic book heroes to the small screen is nothing new. Still, there's something distinctive about TNT's "Witchblade" series, which returns at 7 p.m. Sunday for a second season (regular episodes will air at 8 p.m. Mondays on TNT). Not only is the show's hero not cut from the familiar Super-Spider-Bat-man mold - she's a hero-ine. And she's a heroine in her day job as well, as a New York City cop named Sara Pezzini. The legend is that Sara stumbled upon an ancient metallic glove called the Witchblade. It gave her myriad powers, from stopping a bullet to reading someone's mind. Naturally, this discovery made her the target of Bad Men who had their own to-do list for the Witchblade. With its outsized violence, surreal dialogue and visual stylishness, TNT's "Witchblade" captures the look and feel of the print medium it's adapting. It's an ambitious effort. Yancy Butler, who plays Sara, is spared the embarrassment of earlier TV superchicks. No parading around in skin-tight outfits for this wonder woman. A note to the uninitiated: Last season's finale showed Sara using the Witchblade to turn back the clock and reverse the death of her partner Danny (Will Yun Lee), who is very much alive in Sunday's premiere. If you'd like more backstory, TNT is helpfully re-running season one of "Witchblade" on Tuesday nights, at 10 p.m. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.
