(Photo: Andrew Southam)

Déjà vu all over again: Each week, the new NBC series Boomtown will feature the story of a crime told Rashomon-style from the multiple perspectives of two good-hearted but bumbling L.A. cops, an ambitious local reporter, a philandering D.A., a kindly paramedic, and two homicide detectives played by Donnie Wahlberg and Mykelti Williamson. "When I read the script, I saw the L.A. that I fell in love with in films like Chinatown," says Wahlberg. "And Graham Yost wrote my role for me, which was great."

Crowded field: As one of eight new crime dramas debuting this fall, Boomtown stands out for its inventive storytelling style (think NYPD Blue meets Go) and vigorous writing (Yost's credits include Speed and Band of Brothers).

Keeping it up: Critics question whether the series can sustain the pilot's striking backward-and-forward narrative style over the course of an entire season. "They're just covering themselves," Wahlberg scoffs, but he admits that he's also worried about getting trapped in a formula: "I don't want to dissolve into a Third Watch."

Boomtown
Sundays, 10 p.m., NBC.

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Emily Gitter
• From the Sep 8, 2002 issue of New York