SnoopyStyle Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino) is a US Marshal in Miami. Her father Marshall Sisco (Robert Forster) is the only one she unequivocally trusts. Amos Andrews (Bill Duke) is her boss.Based on the character portrayed by Jennifer Lopez in Elmore Leonard's Out of Sight, Karen Sisco is a smart, sexy, and tough character. Carla Gugino plays her with gusto. It never really took off and lasted only 7 episodes with 3 unaired remaining. I think there were two main problems.The first is they shot this is L.A. If they could do it in Miami, it would add so much more local flavor. There is a difference and the audience can feel it. The second is the need for edginess. Seeing the successful 'Justified' (another Elmore Leonard adaptation), it seems obvious that Karen Sisco just doesn't have the grittiness in both style and substance. It just isn't Elmore Leonard enough.

liquidcelluloid-1 Network: ABC; Genre: Crime/Mystery, Action, Drama; Content Rating: TV-PG (violence and some language); Available: reruns on Sluth; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 -4); Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season , 10 episodes) In 1998, out-of-the-blue, ABC delivered a criminally unseen and wondrously entertaining little (6 episodes) masterpiece called "Maximum Bob". "Bob" was a flawless translation, a free-roaming piece of quirky TV magic, better than just about every Leonard adaptation big or small screen to date. "Karen Sisco" is the network and producers Danny DeVito and Barry Sonnenfeld's 2nd attempt to wrestle an Elmore Leonard novel onto the small screen and the results this time are not nearly as impressive. "Sisco" spins off "Out of Sight" Federal Marshal Karen Sisco (Carla Gugino, "Spin City") as she tracks down parole jumpers in Miami, Florida.Compared to "Bob", "Sisco" restrains itself into a TV crime/mystery template and for the most part lacks the wild non-linear storytelling and, with the exception of "Dumb Bunnies" (featuring DeVito, Rhea Pearlman, Kevin Dillon, a series of gruff henchmen and a grenade), the quirky hobby pre-occupied characters of a Leonard novel. For such a light, colorful series, "Sisco" remains flat pretty consistently. It is too serious to be quirky and too quirky to be serious, a balance that it never comes to grips with. The mysteries aren't particularly clever, the action routine, the dialog uninspired - although you wouldn't know that just watching Robert Forster who gives a wily performance as Karen's retired father Marshall. Yes, Marshal Marshall Sisco. Credit also goes to Gary Cole and Xander Berkley who guest star in memorable, colorful characters.Propping up the series is Gugino who lends a casual sexiness – that smartly isn't too played up - to Karen's tough-gal attitude. But the show makes the death-blow mistake of under-writing our lead which makes Karen a pretty dry and uninteresting heroine. The only way the show can think to humanize her is to end each episode with a moment of bonding between her and her "daddy". Forster and Gugino sell the hell out of the chemistry but I can't shake the feeling I'm being manipulated into a happy ending for all the families out there. "Sisco" follows "Alias" as another show with a butt-kicking heroine who needs her in-the-business dad's shoulder to lean on.Maybe I'm wrong to be so tough on "Karen Sisco". It isn't bad. It just never revs up. It never quite finds itself, and wasn't on the air long enough to reach the quirky crime series nirvana it should have. I expected so much more and was, personally, profoundly disappointed.* * / 4

direknyte I just CANNOT believe that they canceled this show *sigh* Just goes to show that television studios (and, just maybe, television audiences) do not know entertainment.... Instead of shows like this, we get stuck with yet more "reality TV" drivel like fear factor, American idol, survivor, etc etc ad nauseum... PLEASE make it stop! The executives don't know good television, the general public does not seem to recognize talented scripts, plots, excellent acting, etc. Does any one actually realize how many variations of CSI, or some take-off, spin-off what have you there are? Try to go 2 days without seeing it on the TV! Good luck! Everything is the same, same stories, same plots, we need something fresh, different, exciting....

Rick Blaine I knew I had seen something special. After the hour-long episode 5 (Nostalgia) I knew I had not imagined it. Yes, this was a critics' favourite, and yes, they all gave the same reasons and impressions I'd had. There's no coincidence here.What is it that gets you to not turn the channel? When you see something intriguing already in the opening titles? Les Paul used to say that an audience will never remember the first song you play - they're busy making up their minds whether they like you or not, and they make up their minds in those first two minutes.So with Karen Sisco. This is well acted, well directed, and above all well written. More and more it's become apparent to me how vital a good teleplay is: without it the directing and acting will fall apart, lacking a foothold.I imagine this crew has a lot of fun. Yes, there's violence, and I don't like that, but there's a coziness and a sense of adventure too. And the humour - or should I say wit?Enjoy.