The Philanthropist

A pleasant surprise: a drama about a rich, rule-breaking risk-taker (a saucy James Purefoy) that's not cutesy or predictable.

Deep inside Philanthropist is a smart, earnest yet realistic series waiting to be told, and the pilot makes an intriguing beginning.

Against all odds, this week's premiere turns out to be a competent, highly watchable hour of television, the most promising broadcast network premiere since "Southland."

The pilot was shot on location in southern Africa and is dazzlingly filmed; the cinematography alone stands out. But it’s the hero’s duality--he’s a good Samaritan with a flawed personality--that helps make The Philanthropist an unusual and exhilarating network series.

The Philanthropist proves compassionate and insightful, never didactic, and heartily entrenching.

I want to see another episode or two before I can tell if The Philanthropist has the potential to be anything more than a summer trifle. But thanks to Purefoy, it's at least an entertaining trifle.

It remains to be seen whether Teddy's work on behalf of the needy can become an unexpected gift to needy NBC, but strictly as light summer entertainment with a touch of heart, The Philanthropist delivers.

Horton may in fact reach too frequently into his bag of editing and photographic bells and whistles, but for the most part his approach helps sustain interest when the teleplay falters, sputters or just plain poops out.

It’s hard to fault a drama that celebrates altruism and tries to glamorize social conscience. But I found myself cringing at the condescending scenes of our rich white savior wandering among the Africans with their colorful outfits and drum music, his checkbook at the ready in case he needs to bribe a local.

If you can get past the patronizing only-a-white-man-can-save-the-needy concept, the series could be an illuminating look at what's going on in the rest of the world. It's too educational and earnest for me to consider it "entertainment," but other viewers might be better people than me.

Purefoy brings some raffish charm to the role, but these days, who wants to embrace raffish philandering philanthropists--particularly ones so defiantly dim.

Teddy's impulses are undeniably good ones, but tales of African corruption are nothing new and often cited as a cause of viewer fatigue. And though Teddy's expected to range far and wide, it remains to be seen whether The Philanthropist, and its debonair title character, have anything new to do--or say--about the problems he'll encounter.

Though there is great appeal in the idea of a selfish man suddenly seeing beyond himself to the suffering around him, there is also more than a whiff of Rudyard Kipling's "white man's burden" in the way the story is told.

The performances here are good, right down to a cynical--and beautiful--bartender to whom Teddy tells the whole tale. But the action often feels like it was created by video-game developers, and what is supposed to be the subtext, about Teddy really trying to save himself, is about as subtle as a kick in the groin from a sneering DEA agent.

It is most silly at its most serious. It might be better to go the full 007. As it is, and notwithstanding some spectacular location footage, there's scarcely a real moment in it from first shot to last.