Tuesday night reviews

Smith

If you enjoy movies like The Italian Job you'll probably like Smith. As a matter of fact, this new series feels very much like a mini-series that aired on FX called Thief starring Andre Braugher. In Thief, Andre plays a professional, high-tech thief suddenly thrust into the position of father while planning the next big heist. Smith, however, is significantly different. Ray Liotta plays Bobby Stevens, a cup salesman by day and leader of a professional team of thieves as his other occupation. Any professional team of thieves with any sense of pride has the following occupations well represented: a demolitions expert, a sharpshooter, an electronics wizard, an intel guy, a hot woman to provide distractions, and a transportation man. Smith is no slacker - they're all there.

Of course there's no shortage of drama. The sharpshooter likes to take out bullies when he's not surfing, another member of the team spends his time ( and money ) gambling - what's more, his wife is in love with the transportation guy. Another guy on the team, the guy with all the intel, appears to be on house arrest and there appears to be some love interests between him and the hot, distraction girl. Lastly, Liotta's wife is on parole - although I either missed or it wasn't revealed - for something? Will they continue to get away with their heists? Every now and then it's good to see the bad guys get away, but will they run out of things to swipe? I think the chances are good that their run of luck will eventually end. Liotta himself tells his boss that he only wants three or more jobs before he retires. Furthermore, I think it's well communicated that he is much more interested in spending time with his family than lifting fine art for the rest of his life.

The Unit

As an ex-military guy I couldn't help but like The Unit from the first episode. The Unit is a crack team of Army Rangers that go on missions that you and I will never know about. It's important that no one never knows about their missions, even their wives can't know. Of course we get to find out what they're up to. When it initially aired, the viewer followed the inception of a new member ( Scott Foley ) to The Unit. Of course, he's green and needs to be broken in and learn the ropes. His wife, as well, needs to be broken in and shown the ropes of how to be a wife of a member of The Unit.

At first a furious drama ensues. His wife will not tolerate not knowing where her husband is and will not conform to the rules that wives must. Dennis Haysbert plays Jonas Blane, the toughened leader that has the answers to every solution, nerves of steel, and the commanding presense required to finish every mission. Likewise, his wife is the leader who tends to matters at home, keeping the wives together. Every now and then the camera steps away from the tactical to the more domestic. The commanding officer, Colonel Tom Ryan ( Robert Patrick ), is secretly having an affair with one of the team's wives ( Abbey Brammell ). Jonas' wife loses 40 grand of the wives' money to a con artist in a home deal gone south. The rookie's wife ( Audrey Marie Anderson ) almost gets raped while working at the local radio station. I suspect that The Unit will not be MIA anytime soon.