Bland characters lack killer instinct in 'Stalker'

ABC's ''Night Stalker" is a remake of the 1970s Darren McGavin vehicle. And in one scene during tonight's premiere, at 9 on Channel 5, the 1970s-era McGavin is digitized into the new show's newspaper office, leaning up against a desk like a bright cardboard cutout. It's the hour's only gesture at humor, and it falls as flat as the image.

''Night Stalker" is from Frank Spotnitz, an executive producer of ''The X-Files," but it has none of that show's lively and clever self-reference. It is an ashen thriller, with an unlikely pair of Mulder-Scully crime reporters who can't work up a chemistry no matter how hard they smirk at each other. It's not the weakest of the new supernatural pilots, but it so quickly falls into generic horror moves and a stifling atmosphere that it doesn't make for a terribly auspicious hour.

Stuart Townsend takes over McGavin's Carl Kolchak role with all the existential angst of a sophomore philosophy major. Kolchak is a journalist at the Los Angeles Beacon who is obsessed with crimes that have paranormal possibilities, mostly so he can catch the monster that killed his wife. In a ''Fugitive"-like twist, an FBI agent is convinced Kolchak is the murderer, while Kolchak believes the agent is behind a cover-up conspiracy. At home, Kolchak has an office devoted to avenging his wife's death, with gruesome photos and newspaper articles plastering the walls.

Oddly, the show locates Kolchak in a slickly post-modern glass house that puts the lie to his scrappy reporter image. Really, the new Kolchak is straight out of a spread in Architectural Digest. The house is so coolly spectacular, it only adds to the show's unemotionality, its lack of character.

Gabrielle Union plays Perri Reed, another Beacon crime reporter whose dislike of Kolchak turns to compassion when she learns about his wife. She's not as grim as Kolchak, but she takes his missions seriously. Together, they track monsters while the police fumble the cases -- tonight it's a beast that isn't as far from the cheesy environs of ''Wolf Lake" as it should be. We catch glimpses of the animal, with its vicious eyeballs, and perhaps because we do, the plot isn't quite frightening. Sometimes what we don't see is scarier. When Kolchak and Reed finally go into a bat-filled lair to rescue a girl from the monster's clutches, it's no better than rote horror material.

ABC is making a big move on Thursdays, an already fiercely competitive night, by slotting ''Alias" at 8 and then ''Night Stalker." But while the usually dynamic ''Alias" may indeed attract a share of viewers, ''Night Stalker" probably won't inspire so much as anesthetize them.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.