Reviews

A&E Network • Tuesday, July 15 (10 p.m.)

With its new original series The Cleaner, A&E is back in the scripted drama business for the first time in years. Judging from the pilot, the show looks like a winner thanks to a commanding performance from former Law and Order star Benjamin Bratt.

Bratt stars as William Banks, an “extreme interventionist” who, after wrestling with his addictions, dedicates his life to helping others combat their own. Banks is literally a man with a calling: After hitting rock-bottom, he strikes a deal with God to serve as an avenging angel in return for being given a second chance to get his life in order.

To help him do his good deeds, Banks assembles an unconventional — and demographically diverse — team that includes a young Asian woman with whom he may have a personal past, an African-American car salesman whose addict-brother Banks once helped out, and a Mohawk-sporting flunky.

Think 21 Jump Street on the Highway to Heaven.

When he isn’t easy saving souls, busting drug-fencing operations and chatting with the Almighty, Banks tries to carve out quality time with his wife and kids.

The Cleaner is said to have been inspired by an actual person, but the show (to borrow the network’s own slogan) feels a lot less like “Real Life” than far-fetched “Drama.” Still, Bratt makes it all work — he’s good-looking, charismatic and convincing enough that viewers should fall for the show hook, line and cleaner. —George Vernadakis

Speed • Thursday, July 17 (10 p.m.)

Speed and independent North-South Productions borrow heavily from Thom Beers’s (Deadliest Catch, et al.) formula in this summer series about Chicago O’Hare Towing & Recovery.

From narrator to sped-up aerial shots to computer-graphic renderings — see how the two huge wreckers, with rotating booms and hooks, will lift the 17-ton excavator onto a tow truck — this is Ice Road Truckers on the snowy streets of Illinois.

We’ve all seen tow truckers in action and maybe wondered how they handle tough situations as seen here — like hauling an SUV out of a deep ditch or extracting a 14-foot tractor trailer stuck in a 13-foot overpass.

The “dangerous reality” formula grates when the “danger” is overhyped or the tensions between workers (gruff shop owner Bill Gratzianna and younger brother Joey) are exaggerated. Wrecked is a bit guilty — but then again, at least you’re not constantly afraid someone will drown or freeze to death. —Kent Gibbons