“The Philanthropist” premiered last night on NBC giving it the Wednesday night at 10 spot.  My wife and I were looking forward to this show because we are big fans of James Purefoy.  He proved himself to be a quality actor; especially in his portrayal of Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome and as the prince in “A Knight’s Tale.”

We were happy to see Jesse L. Martin in the cast.  In addition to his work in “Law and Order”, I thought he did a great job in “Rent”. 

The show looked very promising. Unfortunately the premise is a little hard to accept. It appears to be based on adventuring billionaires like Richard Branson with a do-gooder twist. Our hero saves the life of a little African boy and, this event, leads him to give up his playboy lifestyle and spend his time personally helping the desperately poor of the world. As I watched him dodge all of the pitfalls in order to deliver one box of vaccine to a small village in Nigeria I wondered if it wouldn’t have been more beneficial to the people and less trouble for him if he just hired professionals to do it. There were times that he used his money and power to get out of jams and to continue to move forward. Each time he did it highlighted the fact that there really was no story. All of his effort was for the sake of the plot and not because there wasn’t an easier way to do it.

The show is supposed to capture your heart with his need to help but it does not ring true. What started turning my opinion away from the show is finding out that our hero lost his young son and he was devastated by it. This back story is now getting old. It had been done several times and is starting to sound silly. Just because “The Mentalist” got away with it didn’t make the idea a slam dunk for this show. It just smacks of lack of originality to keep seeing the same tragedy in the lives of the heroes of TV shows.

I am sorry to say that his show just doesn’t work for me. I hope quality actors like James Purefoy and Jesse L. Martin can find other shows. I will not be adding “The Philanthropist” to my schedule of TV watching.