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It is sometimes unfortunate when two shows share similar titles. They are prone to be confused with one another, causing episodes of one show to be missed while episodes of another show are accidentally taped. I know I sound like I’m speaking from experience; I’m not. A TV guru such as myself simply does not make mistakes like that. The casual fan, though, could very easily make such recording goof-ups. That’s why it’s a shame that NBC’s new drama Deadline sounds so similar in name to the dumb newsmagazine Dateline. Worse still, they air on the same night. It would be a shame if someone missed Deadline thinking it was yet another edition of Dateline. For Deadline, while not a great drama, shows some promise.

Deadline is a new drama set at a fictional New York newspaper called the New York Ledger. It’s obvious what newspaper the Ledger is supposed to be. From the typeface of the newspaper’s logo to lines like "I love the pictures in that paper," it’s obvious the Ledger is supposed to be the New York Post. The main character of the show is Wallace Benton (Oliver Platt), a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who is always on the lookout for some hard news to report. In one of the show’s more noticeable inaccuracies, Benton makes $300,000 a year. Puh-leeze. As all us dedicated employees of The Circle know, newspaper journalists are about as likely to make that kind of salary as George W. Bush is to admit he’s snorted cocaine. It’s just not gonna happen.

Included in the cast of supporting characters are Benton’s managing editor, Nikki Masucci (Cheers’ Bebe Neuwirth, who is now sporting quite the muscular body, invoking fear in the heart of this TV critic); Hildy Baker (Lili Taylor), the Ledger’s gossip columnist; Brooke Benton (Hope Davis), an award-winning Ledger columnist who also happens to be Wallace’s estranged wife; and Si Beekman (Tom Conti), the owner of the newspaper. Also along for the ride are two students Benton recruited from the university class he taught on investigative journalism: Beth Khambu (Christina Chang), and Charles Foster (Damon Gupton).

Though there is a large cast, Benton is clearly the main character. And it’s an appealing role. He is a warm, friendly character who at the same time is a hard-nosed journalist and won’t let anything stand in the way of a good story. He’s also got a penchant for sex and alcohol. While this may seem like a bit of a cliched character, it works. It helps that Benton’s character is written solidly, with good lines like "Off the record, I don’t go off the record" accentuating the character’s punch.

A couple of the other characters could use a little help, as none seem as well developed as Benton. Though it’s nice to see the managing editor not be the cliched woman-on-a-power-trip character, Nikki Masucci is a bit too man crazy for my tastes. In one of the episodes I saw, she knowingly harbored a male fugitive whom she had just met a couple of days before. Ultimately, of course, Nikki does the right thing, and leaves the fugitive, but one would think that if she had worked her way up to the position of managing editor she’d have a tad better judgment than that in the first place.

The character that simply does not work for me is that of Si Beekman. He is just too much of a cartoon. He is rough and gruff and is willing to print just about any story that would sell newspapers. He doesn’t show much in the way of heart, and is willing to let his personal agendas dictate the path the writers of the Ledger will go in a story.

That being said, Deadline, for the most part, works for me. When it falters, it’s because the writers awkwardly try to lighten the drama. Such was the case with the October 23^rd episode, which had a good (though not highly original) story about a man who had gotten in some trouble protesting about Vietnam in the 1960s. It was a powerful story, with a fairly unexpected ending, but too often the writers threw in some scenes to try to lighten the tone of the episode. In a lighter show such as the mid-90s Due South, the scenes might have worked, but they don’t belong in a show like this. They just made things awkward. Deadline is from Law & Order’s Dick Wolf. As evidenced by Law & Order, Wolf’s shows work best when they stick with hard drama. And when Deadline does this, it makes for some pretty good drama.

I think Deadline has a promising future. For the ensemble of supporting characters to work, they need to be better developed. The drama needs to be more tightly written, with not as many attempts to lighten the mood. Still, the episodes I’ve seen so far I’ve generally liked, and I think you might too. Deadline may not be brilliant, but it’s an enjoyable, fairly engrossing drama with the potential to become great. Give it a try. The show airs Monday nights at 9 PM on NBC, which is Channel 4 here at Marist.

Before I close, let me make one more recommendation. This Sunday, Nov. 5^th, The Growing Pains Movie will air on ABC (Channels 7 and 10) at 7 PM. It’s a two-hour reunion movie of the quintessential ‘80s family sitcom. Like most reading this, I grew up with Growing Pains; it holds a special place in my heart. The whole cast (with the exception of Leonardo DiCaprio, who was only around for the show’s last season anyway) will return for the movie, and I’m very interested in seeing it. Anybody up for some nostalgia is encouraged to check it out.