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In September of 1996, Profiler premiered on the NBC
network. It was the first TV show to use the method of profiling to find and capture bad
guys. Of course, it had to put the Hollywood-style twist of the lead character, Samantha
“Sam” Waters (Ally Walker) actually being able to visualize what the killer saw and felt.
Viewers were also drawn to the character Bailey Malone (Robert Davi) because he was
similar to the FBI leader Jack Crawford (played by Scott Glenn) in The Silence of the
Lambs.
Every episode played out a different story, but it
was the underlying danger and threat to Sam that kept the show’s tension at a high level.
That danger came in the form of a serial killer known as “Jack-of-all-Trades” -- a killer
with an ever-changing way of doing things. At one point in the initial investigation,
Sam got closer to catching Jack, causing him to feel a bond to Sam, and he began to send
her twisted love letters and messages. Sam eventually left the case to save her sanity,
but Jack killed her husband to force her back into the game. Instead, she went into
hiding, and Malone was the only one who knew where Sam and her daughter were.
The first episode is about Malone bringing Sam back to the FBI office
because he needs her help to solve an important case. She agrees to do it only if her
true identity is kept a secret. This creates tension with the local police detective who
is skeptical of her talents and paranoid about who she is. It is his insistence to find
out her identity that ends up alerting Jack to her reappearance, causing him to start
killing again in an effort to bring Sam back into the game of cat-and-mouse.
The season maintains a level of suspense, and the box set is not only
great for fans of the show but it’s also an opportunity for new fans of this genre to
discover the series. The only disadvantage of the box set is that episode four is not
included because of prohibitive costs to obtain the rights to a song by the Police.
Also included in the box set is a commentary by Ally Walker and
Robert Davi on the pilot episode. There is also a photo gallery and an episode of A&E's
American Justice, Profile of Evil: Inside the Criminal Mind.
GRADE:
A (SHOW), B+(DISC)
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