Look ahead: The Hottest Shows | Homeland Security | Daily Calendar

HOMELAND SECURITY

Since we already have a Patriot Act to secure the homeland against everything from due process to impure thoughts, I don’t see why we really need any more prime-time paranoia. But more is what we get a lot of this fall, both old-fashioned and newfangled, and some of it’s not bad.


The Handler Joe Pantoliano trains rookie FBI agents to go so far undercover in Los Angeles that they don’t know whether they’re stopping crime or starting it (Fridays, 10 p.m., CBS, website).

Line of Fire Leslie Hope and her FBI agents go after a Richmond, Virginia, crime syndicate that is at least as smart as, and probably better-armed than, the law-and-order guys (midseason, ABC).

Cold Case Kathryn Morris, as the only female detective on a homicide squad in Philadelphia, finds herself most at home in the morgue of the past, reopening old wounds (Sundays, 8 p.m., CBS, website).

Karen Sisco In the best of the traditional shows, Carla Gugino is a definite wow as Sisco, a federal marshal in Miami with a big mouth, a bigger temper, and a medium-size private-eye father (Robert Forster) (Wednesdays, 10 p.m., ABC).

Threat Matrix The eponymous matrix claims to be an elite task force of FBI, CIA, and NSA operatives created by the Homeland Security Act to do whatever they want to anybody who deserves it, especially if you’re Middle Eastern–looking (Thursdays, 8 p.m., ABC). Jake 2.0 The folks at 2.0 are merely NSA, but they’ve got Christopher Gorham on their side, as a computer geek who mistakenly swallows some nanotechnology and becomes superpowerful (Wednesdays, 9 p.m., UPN).

Navy NCIS The best of the newfangled lot gets to be half CSI (all that lab stuff) and half JAG (all those uniforms), while Mark Harmon, David McCallum, and several younger harder-bodies run around after only those spies and terrorists with some connection to the Navy or the Marines (Tuesdays, 8 p.m., CBS, website).

I have a theory that the more governments lie to us, the more we like forensic science, which always tries to tell the truth. —John Leonard