You'll hear good things about 'F.B. Eye'

Here's the pitch: There's this FBI agent, see, who's kind of unusual in that she's deaf and works with a "hearing dog" by her side, a hearing dog being a lot like a seeing dog except that this one nudges her whenever the doorbell sounds or phone rings. Anyway, she's a pretty inspiring woman because she can read the lips of bad guys and because her mother pushed her to learn how to talk, she was able to live independently as an adult, mostly, except for the hearing dog, of course. It sounds like the stuff of a one-shot documentary. In fact, however, "Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye" is a delightful one-hour drama series, based on the story of the real Sue Thomas, and airing 8 p.m. Sundays on Pax (Channel 50). After enduring two dreadful fall shows from Pax, the I Can't Believe It's a Network, I braced myself for even greater heights of schmaltz with "Sue Thomas." Within minutes of last week's premiere episode, however, Irelaxed. Though clearly not aimed at world-weary 18- to 34-year-old viewers, this show presents a sophisticated treatment of the challenges faced by a deaf person in America, laced with moments of low-key, inoffensive humor. In fact, I would use that word to describe this program if I didn't know better. Sadly, to many television watchers, "inoffensive" is a code word for "why watch?" Deanne Bray, herself a hearing-impaired woman, is a fine choice to portray Thomas. My only quarrel is Pax ought to have offered audio description of "Sue Thomas" for its visually impaired viewers. Of course, Thomas is deaf and not blind, but what better way to present the story of an inspiring disabled American than to ensure all disabled Americans can follow along? (If you missed the show's two-hour premiere, it re-airs 7 p.m. next Monday.) The quicker clicker Time Warner Cable has been adding so many channels and features to its digital cable package, you'd think it had competition or something. Perhaps the most welcome addition, because it's taken so long, is the 8-year-old Independent Film Channel (Channel 287). A gritty, risk-taking venture of Bravo's and AMC's parent company, IFC is everything those two other channels aren't (no commercial breaks during movies!). For hilarious grown-up banter among film-TV types, catch Jon Favreau's "Dinner for Five," which airs regularly (including 9:30 tonight) on IFC. It's also nice to have the West Coast feed of Sundance Channel (Channel 286). Sundance will be beefing up its coverage of documentaries next year with a weekly magazine show - a consolation to docufans who were disappointed when Sundance postponed this fall's scheduled launch of its all-docs channel. Also joining the Time Warner lineup: Metro Weather (Channel 77), which plays an eight-minute loop of local weather conditions around the clock; Flix (Channel 288), a Showtime entity that wears the pay channel's hand-me-downs; three more Fox Sports Net regional sports channels (Channels 208-210); and Lifetime Real Women (Channel 261), spinoff No. 2 of the top-rated women's channel (spinoff No. 1, Lifetime Movie Network, has become so popular that Time Warner plans to move it to basic cable soon). Finally, Time Warner has rolled out On Demand, which allows customers to order movies and other programs and then watch them like a DVD, with pause, rewind, fast-forward and repeat viewings over an eight-hour period. Check it out on Channels 101 and elsewhere, then write me and tell me how it looks. At my house, I still can't get it to work. "Oprah After the Show," 6:30 p.m. and other times, weekdays, Oxygen. Look closely at an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," daytime TV's leading talk program, and you'd be amazed how little actual talk there is, what with all those prerecorded segments with the tinkly piano music and Oprah doing the voice-overs. (A voice-over is only "talk" in the sense of being talked to.) By contrast, talk is all there is to "Oprah After the Show," a little half-hour the Queen of Talk tears off after each "Oprah" taping, much as she might casually tear off a six-figure check to charity. Minutes after the main show ends, the after-show begins. It's not much more than cameras rolling and audience members getting to ask the questions there never seems to be time for on the main program. If you don't recognize Oprah's guest that day, too bad; "After the Show" is so bare-bones there aren't even any graphics. But that's OK. The lack of structure is refreshing, and though the Q-and-A is not always riveting, it's clear from her studio audience that Winfrey remains the intelligent viewer's choice in daytime. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:The golden retriever Jesse plays Levi, the service dog that works with FBI agent Sue Thomas, played by Deanne Bray. @ART CREDIT:Pax @ART CAPTION:Deanne Bray portrays Sue Thomas in "F.B. Eye." @ART:Photos (2, color and b/w)