"Night Sins" is different from most network TV miniseries.
It's actually interesting enough to merit its four-hour format. (It airs Sunday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CBS/Ch. 2.)And, in addition to its strong story, "Night Sins" features great direction, good performances and enough thrills and chills to creep the heck out of you.
Don't watch this one alone!
Valerie Bertinelli stars as Megan, a state investigator whose new assignment to a small town in the Northwest unexpectedly becomes exciting - quickly. On her first day, an 8-year-old boy is kidnapped. The only clue is a cryptic note left by the abductor.
Megan teams up with Mitch (Harry Hamlin), the town's police chief, to lead the search for the boy. It turns out that Mitch has a dark secret - his wife and young son were kidnapped and brutally murdered some years earlier.
And the investigation uncovers a whole slew of dark secrets in the seemingly placid town. Some of them end up being directly related to the case, others not - which is part of the intrigue.
And the kidnapping turns out to be related to a string of murders that stretch back 20 years.
Unlike so many TV dramas of this sort, chances are you're not going to figure out whodunnit in the first hour. The narrative points to almost everybody in town as a suspect at some point - and these aren't just annoying red herrings thrown in to divert you.
John Leekley's script - an excellent adaptation of Tami Hoag's novel - takes viewers on the same frustrating, frightening journey the characters are carried on. Clues that seem promising fail to pan out, while some that seem insignificant end up being of major importance.
And everything that happens is tied together before the four hours wrap up.
Director Robert Allan Ackerman is known for much different types of TV movies - including his Emmy-winning job on the multiple-Emmy-winning "David's Mother." But he does a fabulous job of making "Night Sins" at once intriguing and frightening.
This is the sort of suspense/
thriller that Hollywood used to make for theatrical release - the kind of movie that will give you a start without spilling buckets of blood.
"Night Sins" is, however, downright creepy, from the suspect with the grotesque glass eye to the mummified corpse to the bizarre notes left by the abductor (or is that abductors?) to the mysterious phone calls. Yikes!
In addition to Bertinelli and Hamlin, "Night Sins" features strong performances by Karen Sillas and Martin Donovan as the kidnapping victim's parents, Mariska Hargitay as an awful TV reporter, William Russ as a pompous sheriff and David Marshall Grant, Colm Feore, Michael Cumpsty, Tim DeKay and Jeffrey DeMunn as various townsfolk/suspects.
And, while it's not listed in the credits, Park City is also one of the stars of the show. "Night Sins" was shot entirely on location here in Utah, mostly in Park City and Heber.
Local viewers will recognize a lot of local sites. And Park City's old hospital - now the local library - plays a pivotal part in the drama.
"Night Sins" is definitely not entertainment for the entire family, however. CBS has rated the miniseries TV-14, and viewers ought to take that seriously.
Violence, while not excessive or gratuitous, is an integral part of the story. And there are some steamy scenes just this side of what you'll see on "NYPD Blue."
But "Night Sins" remains the best miniseries of the season - and about the only one that doesn't suffer from excess padding to make it four hours long.
MINISERIES TO SERIES? If Valerie Bertinelli has her way, this miniseries won't be the last you'll see of "Night Sins."
She's hoping that it will become a weekly series on CBS.
"I had so much fun doing this character I would love to see it do well so we could take it to series," she said. "There so much about the characters of Megan and Mitch and a lot of the other characters that I would like to find out so much more about and play with."
Bertinelli has a deal with CBS to star in a series. But whether she does an hourlong drama or a half-hour comedy will be decided by "whichever script is better."
"I told them to hold off on developing an hour because I love `Night Sins' so much," she said. "They're still developing half hours. But I've tried two half hours and they weren't successful, as good as they were. And I believe they were good."
(Bertinelli's first series, "One Day at a Time" - which debuted when she was only 15 - ran from 1975-84. Since then, she's starred in many hugely successful TV movies. But her two sitcoms, "Sydney" and "Cafe Americain," both died rather quick deaths.)
Bertinelli is anxious to do another series, but Hamlin is not.
"I'm begging him right now," Bertinelli said.
Hamlin said he had a "great time" doing "L.A. Law" for five years, but that he left because "I wanted to play more characters."
The two do seem to be each other's biggest fans, however.
"I love this one because I got to work with Valerie every day," Hamlin said. "And aside from being an extraordinary actress, she's just the greatest kick in the world."
"That's not fair," interjected Bertinelli. "I didn't get to do that first. I love you more."
"You'll get your chance," he replied. "Maybe a series would be fun. You never know."
Bertinelli said she's convinced Hamlin to sign on for two years. "I'm trying to get him up to three or four," she said. "But, see, it's got to do well first."
Which is true. How "Night Sins" does in the ratings will determine its future.
And whether Bertinelli and Hamlin would return to Utah to shoot a series remains to be seen.