Reel 1749

Stars: Mark Harmon, Marlee Matlin. Premise: Harmon plays a hardheaded police investigator, Matlin a hearing-impaired assistant DA. They're thrown together by the Chicago criminal-justice system — and he's not too thrilled about it. Strong point: Appealing stars. Harmon's handsome and a versatile actor who can bring the light touch occasionally needed in this kind of drama; Matlin won an Oscar for "Children of a Lesser God." Weak point: Matlin will communicate with Harmon occasionally by talking but mostly by sign language, which his character is trained to understand. But Harmon must then make the audience understand. He'll do that by summarizing her words. It has to be done skillfully and constantly throughout the hour; or it can be wearing on the audience. But it was handled exceptionally well in the pilot.