The Whispers

Rabe is terrific, balancing drive and a mounting dread, and it’s a pleasure to see the actress commanding a lead role. The first three episodes build the mystery at a respectable clip.

Spielberg has always had a facility for casting children and a fondness for the supernatural. In The Whispers he also gets the adult mix right in a bracingly good and shivery serial drama with much to show and tell in the first three hours.

Some elements of the show are stronger than others. The ominous visual mood set by director Mark Romanek in the pilot is particularly striking and is helped along by the score, and the child actors do a good job of toeing the line between creepy and normal. The adults are less well-rounded, which, given the sometimes procedural nature of the plot, isn’t that surprising or that much of an obstacle to enjoying the show.

True, the series is marred by some very lazy writing.... Despite it all, this is seriously addictive stuff.

The central mystery still reaches to the Highest Levels of American Government, but it's a more intimate story, with fine performances by the three young children who start hearing voices, and more worryingly, taking direction from an unseen force.

Watching this invisible, unheard being manipulate children is unsettling, to be sure--but it also becomes perplexing, bordering on silly, in ways that writer Soo Hugh can't possibly intend. On the bright side, Rabe is excellent as the troubled heroine, with Sloane equally good as the equally troubled father and spouse.

The series, created by Soo Hugh and premiering Monday, has all the right pieces working together to make a decent show. It becomes slightly over-plotted by the third episode, but nothing that significantly diminishes its power to hold our interest.

Full of doe-eyed children talking to invisible and possibly sinister forces in the ceiling, the shrubbery and the night sky, The Whispers gets as much mileage out of the Steven Spielberg hand-stamp (he's an executive producer) as possible.

The more scenes there are between Rabe’s agent Claire Bennigan and her new partner, Jessup Rollins (Revolution’s Derek Webster), the better the show is.... It’s best whenever the Drill-chatting kids are onscreen, with young Kylie Rogers particularly skilled at being unnerving.

The Whispers has a polished feel, enough twists, and moves just well enough to steadily build on its central mystery. So for now, anyway, even if the kids aren’t all right, the show is.