‘The Protector’ drops a strong actress in a weak role

As Samantha Waters in the ’90s, she was the title character in the crime drama “Profiler.” She had side cases to pursue, but she spent most of four seasons tracking Jack of All Trades, a serial killer who was obsessed with her.

She dropped that haunted, vulnerable routine for walk-on roles in law enforcement and serial dramas through the ’Oughts, graduating to a recurring role as tough, hard-bitten federal agent June Stahl in “Sons of Anarchy.”

So we know she can play law enforcement. But can she be maternal?

I suppose we’ll find out, in that she’s softened her persona considerably in the Lifetime crime drama “The Protector.”

Walker plays Det. Gloria Sheppard, a free-wheeling homicide detective in Los Angeles. Sheppard is the head of a sort of compiled family. Recently divorced, she’s moved in with Davey, her recovering drug-addict brother, bringing her two sons along with her.

Uncle Davey is tasked with the day-to-day details of coordinating schoolwork and mealtimes because of Gloria’s crazy schedule, but she does care. When a neighbor asks her to track down a rash of missing gnomes and lawn ornaments she files it away but does follow up later. She also stays up all night making a costume for her younger son Leo’s school play (the one the school provided was “wrong,” he said), despite an active caseload tracking down a prominent investor’s murder and pressure from the mayor’s office.

When her partner, Michelle, isn’t sleeping around, she is calling Gloria to task for Gloria’s insistence that all of her hunches are right. As it happens, all of Gloria’s hunches do turn out to be right, but that’s beside the point.

Wait, no, actually, that is the point, and it brings me to my first objection regarding this new character-driven crime serial. I object to crime dramas where the investigator is vaguely psychic. That is, from her arrival on the crime scene, Gloria just knew there was more to this case than met the eye. That without even having met or been aware of them, that the investor’s son colluded with the man’s mistress and the critical clue would be ... wait for it ... a handbag.

On top of this, she is surrounded by people detracting from her hunches, even though the hunches always turn out to be right. This makes her co-workers look like gabbling fools, and while I don’t imagine they are psychic, I’ve been given no reason to understand that one becomes a homicide detective by being a fool.

Her male co-workers are officious and overbearing, but she manages to get her way by stroking their egos and letting them dismiss and belittle her, all the while feeling superior to them. On top of being a homicide detective, she’s pulled in to advise her boss regarding his love life.

She’s not afraid to shake things up, and if a witness is lying she’ll say so to his face. She’ll go so far as to draw a mustache on his face to accuse him of lying – that she remembers when he was in there six years ago, he had a mustache and lied to the police.

Crazy life

So Gloria has this multiplicity of talents – and knowledge of her boss’s personal life that seems sufficient to guarantee job security. But she’s surrounded by people who are constantly objecting to the certainty with which she pursues her hunches, even though she’s always, always, always right.

Which is mostly because on “The Protector,” the investigation is already written so of course Gloria is going to be able to figure it out, where I suppose in reality no one else would think to pursue the lines of investigation that she does, even though they seem to inevitably end up solving the case.

And that’s good because it leaves her free to spend all night in an espresso-fueled frenzy, stitching a costume for Leo’s school play (which he designed). And when he saw it, he knew he couldn’t wear it because he was just Guard No. 3 and the costume was even nicer than the one the king had.

I suppose it wouldn’t have been as dramatic for her to counter Leo’s initial objections by saying that whatever the school costume looked like, that he just go out and be the best Guard No. 3 he could be.

But he’s already a handful, having stolen everyone’s lawn gnomes in the neighborhood and hiding them in the garden shed, because he knew they were afraid of being alone all night in a strange new neighborhood.

Hopefully all of his larceny will be that adorable.

So that’s the crazy life of LAPD homicide detective Gloria Sheppard in “The Protector” – a little caseload, a little gossip, a little racy, little kids and a little wish-fulfillment. Personally I’m not sure it stands out sufficiently from the veritable sea of crime serials to be of any real interest, but your mileage may vary.

New episodes premiere Sunday nights at 10/9c on Lifetime.