‘Body of Proof’ loaded with attitude, unlikeliness

I wasn’t old enough to have had any sense of what Jack Klugman was up to most of the time, but I remember his dark sense of humor. And I liked that big “Q” at the beginning. I was like 5 years old, sue me.

I also like Dana Delany. I liked her on “Desperate Housewives,” I liked her guest star spot as an FBI agent on “Castle,” and I enjoyed her taking the lead as a medical examiner in “Body of Proof.”

Tuesday’s pilot had a lot to establish all at once and I think it did a pretty good job. We open with Delany as former neurosurgeon Megan Hunt taking a CAT scan, snarking at the nurse and all but blaming her physician for her brain’s continued disrepair.

He counters that she’s lucky to be alive, almost fully recovered and to have her new career as a medical examiner. After the car accident, Megan’s hands still go numb so she can’t return to neurosurgery.

What has changed is her approach. As a neurosurgeon, she said, she never took the time to really get to know her patients. As a medical examiner in Philadelphia, she engages with the entire history of her cadavers.

This was one thing that took me out of the story a little. The greater metro area of Philadelphia has something like 6 million people in it and is listed as the fifth largest in the United States. The records for 2008 -- this is probably for the city proper -- list something around 14,500 deaths.

Now, obviously a coroner’s investigation won’t be required for all of them and indeed, Megan is just one of a team of medical examiners. But the idea that one coroner could spend an entire day on one jogger fished from the river surprised me somewhat.

Also, I know she’s the one with all the cameras on her all the time, but a coroner just isn’t required when police are interviewing suspects and conducting searches -- even warrantless searches. On “Castle,” Kate already has Castle following her everywhere she goes. She hardly needs her medical examiner Lanie Parish to come along and ask all sorts of impertinent questions as well.

After all, Megan’s training is as a doctor. Not a police officer. The medical examiner provides the material evidence to support or refute whatever line of investigation the police are pursuing. So what would actually happen is far less exciting than what did.

Investigator

What did happen was Megan Hunt, medical examiner, arrived at the crime scene where the body -- a female jogger and driven young partner at a law firm -- had been fished out of the Schuylkill River. Megan made a number of observations and several deductions.

She and her assistant, a former police officer who seems to be what’s passing for an affordable Simon Baker these days, got in a scuffle with her supervisor, who quibbled with her ordering an expensive test on the remains of a suicide. This later got her called into the office of no less a supporting cast member than Jeri Ryan. Now, I can’t say I was totally convinced of Ms. Ryan’s qualifications as department chief, but I’ll probably keep watching her very closely as she continues to slink around looking amazing.

Anyway, Megan and her low-budget “Mentalist” sidekick had several run-ins with the lead detectives on the dead jogger case, Det. Bud Morris and his partner, Det. Samantha Baker. Megan joined them in the field, on searches, in the interrogation room, and she had all sorts of little insights to share.

It all came down to the stomach contents removed from the jogger’s stomach, a piece of evidence that was pulled and set aside for the entire show. So the cops could have run about doing their work while Megan could’ve been doing her job -- analyzing the stomach contents of a murdered jogger, perhaps – or conducting other autopsies or blowing her department’s budget for the year on a couple of high-end tests.

Now, I get that when Dr. House does the same thing he’s being heroic. But when he does it, he’s saving someone’s life. At best, Megan Hunt is solving a murder. At worst, she’s wasting everyone’s time and limited resources on a situation where -- as she notes darkly herself -- “You can’t kill someone who’s already dead.”

A side concern I noticed was her relationship with her daughter. Megan was absent, not abusive. So when her daughter saw her at her birthday party and backed away, I was thrown a little.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was nice that there was some space for that relationship to develop and grow -- surely the pain of loss in a broken home is a topic worthy of exploration in a drama such as this. But whereas some aspects of the show have been painstakingly researched -- Megan’s examination of the victim’s brain drew on expertise compiled in her former life, for instance -- other parts, like the relationship with the daughter, seemed a bit forced.

But that all goes back to the fact that when you’re establishing your characters in the pilot episode of a production like this, there is a lot to do in a relatively short period of time, and I think “Body of Proof” has a sufficiently interesting tone of voice -- and plenty of attitude -- to hold its own among the dizzying array of cop dramas on the dial.

“Body of Proof” next airs at a special time Sunday night before settling into its regular timeslot, 10/9c Tuesdays on ABC.