Unturning the Stone

For the last week or so I have been checking out the TV adaptions of Robert Parker's Jesse Stone novels. I have found them to be moody, engaging, and well produced. Tom Selleck shows restraint and professionalism as a small town police chief who is imperfect but doing his best to do his job and live his life. It is strange to see Selleck playing Stone after having recently revisited Magnum PI on DVD. Where Magnum was a fun pulpy romp, the issues and gravity of the Stone story lines tend more to abuse, small town power and the limits placed on those who enforce the laws in those communities. The setting for these films is breath taking and like any great noir plays as much a role as the characters who inhabit the landscape.

I have so far watched Stone Cold and Death in Paradise, and enjoyed both. I look forward to viewing the rest.

Filmography from Wiki

• 1. Stone Cold (20 February 2005)
• 2. Jesse Stone: Night Passage (15 January 2006) a prequel to Stone Cold
• 3. Jesse Stone: Death In Paradise (30 April 2006)
• 4. Jesse Stone: Sea Change (22 May 2007)
• 5. Jesse Stone: Thin Ice (1 March 2009)
  
• 6. Jesse Stone: No Remorse (2009)
  
• 7. Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost (2010)