Eleventh Hour

Hood is an interesting character, the latest in a long line of oddball detective shows, including Monk, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and even the venerable Columbo. These men (and they're almost always men, as if to suggest that women are unsuitable as either geniuses or socially awkward) are fun to watch, as they see hidden connections while missing the obvious value of normal human interaction. It's easy to go too far, making them too weird to be believable (though Monk does this intentionally, to great comic effect) or just a bit unlikable, which is how Hood is portrayed. "He's not my partner," says FBI agent Rachel Young (Marley Shelton), who's assigned to accompany Hood. "He's my responsibility."

Hood and Young are only called in to work on the toughest cases, which means that each episode has them traveling to a new location and meeting a new set of guest stars. The format means that this show is all about the mystery, and little is done to develop the characters beyond the obvious pairing of an odd duck and his caretaker. And that's the show's main weakness, because the plots on Eleventh Hour have elements that are both predictable and implausible. And, in the end, that makes the show both formulaic and uninteresting.