I just finished watching the series premiere of The Cleaner on the A&E network and about the only thing I can say is, “meh.” Part of my indifference comes from the fact that when I heard the name of the show, I assumed it was going to be something similar to Harvey Keitel’s “Mr. Wolfe” from Pulp Fiction; “I’m Winston Wolfe. I solve problems.” But that’s not what it was about. The other part is due to the excessive use of “the ‘s’ word.” In this one-hour show, there were at least 12 occurrences of the word. That’s a lot. One single conversation in one scene contained 5 of those uses. That’s just absurd, and shows a lack of skill in the writers.
Anyway, the show revolves around an ex-junkie who believes he talks to God, and his network of ex-junkie associates who try to help people with drug problems. Get it? He’s the “clean”er? Of course, while he’s helping other people, he’s neglecting his own family, and strife ensues. The acting was pretty good and the characters were fairly interesting, but the show just didn’t do it for me.
Thanks for the review. I got in late last night and didn’t want to watch the last few minutes of the show so I figured I’d catch it later. I too was under the mistaken assumption that Benjamin Bratt was playing a less than savory character who “cleaned” up other peoples messes. The whole cleaning up junkie’s angle doesn’t do it for me.