Finding his immoral compass

In the first episode of ABC's midseason drama ''Eyes," Eric Mabius's Jeff McCann sleeps with a co-worker's beautiful wife and uncovers the mole undermining his high tech risk management firm. That's a good start for an intriguing and complicated character.

Then, in the final scene of the pilot, Jeff gets shot in the head at very close range. Normally massive head wounds fit under the heading of ''less encouraging signs."

''All these things had to happen in order for me to continue to live," Mabius chuckles, ''and they did."

On a textual level, viewers only had to be convinced that Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon's Nora is either a really bad shot or that she has reasons for wanting Jeff alive. Behind the scenes, though, many things had to fall into place for Mabius, a guest star in the pilot, to return as a regular. Several stars had to take pay cuts, several people at ABC had to be persuaded to expand an already bulging ensemble, and, most important, Showtime and Ilene Chaiken had to let Mabius out of his contract for ''The L Word."

''It was mutual," Mabius explains of his departure from the Showtime drama, now in its second season. ''We understood that Ilene created the show to always be by, for, and about women and women who love other women. Being the only guy, I was somewhat of a novelty. I'd just blow in, do my scenes, and go off and enjoy the countryside in British Columbia."

Because all of those pieces were able to fall into place, Nora's shot merely grazed Jeff's ear, giving viewers the opportunity to continue to ponder Mabius's love-to-hate character.

''When we were in rehearsals for the pilot, we talked about the qualities of a guy's guy," says Mabius. ''No matter what your level of sensitivity is, they're trying to create the kind of person that men all at some point secretly want to be and that hopefully most women at some point -- in a moment of weakness or not -- would want to sleep with."

While Tim Daly's Harlan Judd is the drama's ostensible lead, Mabius's role typifies the unpredictable nature of the ABC show. He's lying to nearly every character, and his allegiances shift with the wind. For the actor, most familiar from the first ''Resident Evil" film, the second ''Crow" sequel, and ''Welcome to the Dollhouse," the character's variable morality was ultimately liberating.

''You can't make a mistake because it's all in the vein of who Jeff McCann is, how complex or how simplistic he is," the 33-year-old actor says. ''That's what's great -- once I found his immoral compass, I found it easy to move from that place in any direction, whether it's sincerity or duplicity."

The ''Eyes" ensemble -- which also includes Rick Worthy, A.J. Langer, Natalie Zea, and Laura Leighton -- bonded during the unusual multiweek rehearsal schedule mandated by director Jon Amiel (''The Singing Detective") before the pilot even shot.

''Rarely on film do you get rehearsal periods, and never on TV, so this slammed everyone together in a kinetic and wonderful way," Mabius recalls. ''I think trusting one another's abilities, whatever the writers throw at us and whatever turns our characters take, makes us exponentially better at what we're trying to do."

What they're trying to do now is get people to watch. ABC has slotted ''Eyes" on Wednesday nights, following ''Alias," a series with a similar mixture of gadgets and character development. Compatibility aside, though, ''Eyes" has to face two established brands in NBC's ''Law & Order" mothership and CBS's ''CSI: NY."

''Eyes" has averaged a solid but unremarkable 7.1 million viewers since its debut five weeks ago.

''Either the audience is going to find us or they're not, and that's directly related to advertising dollars being spent on our show," Mabius says.

Even as he hopes that the network lets ''Eyes" find an audience, Mabius appreciates the creative freedom ABC allowed.

''ABC took a risk by not making the show be strictly procedural," he says. ''It's easier to facilitate the murder of the week as opposed to the relationship as it develops and unfolds between the characters. Instead of the relations being incidental to the crime of the week, I think it's the other way around on our show, and I think it breeds loyalty in the audience."