“Stalker” is a new CBS procedural that focuses solely on stalking cases. Apparently, in this age of specialization, shows that profile serial killers and “Special Victims Unit” perps and victims may be just a little too general.
And “Stalker,” which premieres on Wednesday night at 10, may well become a hit. Created by Kevin Williamson, the writer-producer behind “The Following” and writer of some of the “Scream” movies, the show speaks directly to the large TV audience who like to be scared out of their wits. Scheduled after “Criminal Minds,” which can be awfully disturbing, “Stalker” opens with an edge-of-seat sequence involving a woman getting doused with gasoline and, after some clever fake-outs, burned alive in a car. It’s fright bait.
But I essentially hated “Stalker.” It does lean on violence against women, as some early critics have pointed out, even while the premiere includes a stalking case involving two male college students. And the writers seem to take pleasure in having the detectives run through the gruesome and voyeuristic details of the cases, including peepholes — which, for the viewer, is a little creepy. I’m not saying that “Stalker” always fetishizes its crimes, but at moments it feels that way.
But what turns me off more is the offensiveness of the two lead detectives, Jack Larsen (Dylan McDermott) and Beth Davis (Maggie Q).
He’s a new cop in town, and he’s bothered that she is not responding positively to his flirty jokes. “I’m sorry I stared at your breasts,” he says. “It’s why you don’t like me.” He also delivers this wrong-headed doozy: “Why do you wear sexy things if you don’t want men to notice?”
Perhaps Beth resists him because she’s aware on a subconscious level that Jack is currently following his estranged wife and their son — stalking them, in fact, unless the show reveals a new twist in upcoming episodes. That’s right. A stalker stalking stalkers. Great. Beth may realize that his friendly overtures are actually quite unsettling.
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Or maybe we’re supposed to like him, and think he’s less than a stalker because he still loves his family? That would be choice.
Beth is, of course, the victim of a past stalking. Which is why she has sheer curtains on her windows that reveal silhouettes of those inside. Brilliant work, detective. I’m betting she’ll be stalked a few times before the end of the season, but I won’t be watching to find out.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.