If you've been following the action, you'll know that I'm a fan of these film adaptations of Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series. I have a fondness for crime novels going back to Raymond Chandler and John D. McDonald, coupled with a fondness for Tom Selleck (the actor that plays Jesse Stone in these films) that goes back to Magnum P.I. - sidebar, but why aren't there more magnificently hairy-chested-guy role models on television these days? All the guys these days look like they just came out of a tweezing session, or else they're playing bad guys, who are apparently all hirsute fellows... The Parker books aren't required reading before you view Thin Ice, especially since it is the first of the film adaptations that isn't actually adapted; Parker wrote it for the small screen.

When I say this is the best thing that Selleck has done in years, I mean in the years between Stone Cold in 2005 and the last Magnum episode in 1988... He really did go off the rails into mediocrity after Magnum, perhaps because he was too closely identified with the mustachioed detective or because he didn't make the best choices (I mean, Paulina Porizkova? C'mon!!) in which films to accept. The sex symbol Selleck is still present in Parker's Jesse Stone character, although it is balanced against the dysfunction and depression that marks Stone's life. For those that didn't view the earlier entries in the series, Jesse Stone is a Los Angeles cop that arrived in the first film for a job interview to be police chief in the small town of Paradise, overqualified and quite drunk. The notion that Stone is overqualified quickly gives way to the reality that something is rotten in Paradise (all puns intended, no doubt), and some good police work ensues. Plenty of down-on-his-luck angst ensues as well, plus some naughtiness with ladies that aren't afraid to admit they find hairy chests enticing.

This general formula continues through each film, with brief interludes where Stone (Selleck) travels into the city to interact with sleazy characters that threaten the tranquility of small-town Paradise. Thin Ice starts in the city and actually has very little to do with goings-on in Paradise. There are distinct plotlines running, each of which is stitched up nicely by Parker by the film's end. Parker tells a good story, the characters are played well by Selleck and his entourage, and there's just enough skill behind the camera and in the editing to make Thin Ice very watchable. It ends up being far better than you'd expect from a made-for-TV production, and Selleck is lots of fun to watch as the gruff, conflicted, irreverent Jesse Stone. Fans of the ongoing series may be put off that more of Thin Ice isn't set in Paradise, but hang in through the credits and we promise you'll be pleased.