Certain Prey

Never having read the crime novels by John Sandford I have no way of knowing how well the film Certain Prey matches the book. The reviews I’ve seen suggest it’s great. Or pretty bad. It’ll be one or the other, I suppose, or else somewhere in between.

I quite enjoyed it, for a typical slick looking, glossy US television crime drama. Many years ago I would have thought it was fantastic, whereas with age I have to say you get what it says on the tin. I only watched it because it had Mark Harmon as the detective, Lucas Davenport. (OK, maybe a little because he’s called Davenport.)

Sometimes it would be refreshing to have a detective who is not independently wealthy, handsome and irresistible to women, as well as successful with the detecting. Someone seemed to find Mark Harmon’s background narrator’s voice irritating, but it’s what you do in classic hardboiled detective stories, so it was fairly standard. And you can’t very well change the main character totally from what the author had in mind, however ridiculous.

There was a fun bit on art and Mick Jagger, and an interesting encounter with a State Trooper. Couldn’t believe Davenport didn’t recognise his killer when they met, but it made the film last longer. And it’s weird how both this pilot and the first episode of NCIS involved Wichita airport. Both probably fake.

Slightly confusing with all the characters and their relationships with each other, seeing as how this is the tenth book. I expect it will get easier if we have more of them. I suspect we might, because they left enough of a hook for viewers to be interested.

From Gibbs to Davenport

That only makes sense if you really know me, btw.

I distinctly remember Mark Harmon saying that now NCIS is doing so well, he doesn’t need to do extra films in the summer between seasons. But here he is, planning to become Lucas Davenport, detective hero in John Sandford’s crime novels. I don’t know these books at all, but I gather Davenport is about twenty years younger than Mark Harmon.

People who have read the books seem to have visualised Davenport differently, and those who haven’t, just want Mark Harmon. At least as long as this doesn’t interfere with NCIS, which is the most important thing for Gibbs fans.

But who cares? The fans say they will watch anything that has Mark in it, and if I was a film maker I would cast someone like him in my movie, too.

He has apparently signed for two more years with NCIS, but if this Davenport venture is successful he could have something to do in retirement. The question is whether he simply wants to work, or if he needs to make his old age more financially secure. I’d have thought there is a risk he will overdo things, and if it was me I’d want a holiday every year.

Let’s hope it’s better than Weather Girl.