When we last saw Jesse Stone, he was already marginalized and on the outs as chief of the Paradise police force. His partners and fellow cops, Rose and "Suitcase," were left to operate without him, and that's where we find them at the beginning of Innocents Lost. To make things worse, Stone is being replaced as chief by a smarmy fellow who is more interested in Paradise tourism than solving crimes. When a young girl from town is found dead of a drug overdose on a remote county road, sides form and it's impossible for Stone to stay on the sidelines. Solving this case takes him back to familiar territory in Boston, giving us a chance to enjoy William Sadler's ongoing role as a Boston gangster. By this time, Sadler's Mr. Fish has acquired the veneer of an old-school, honorable criminal element, so it's appropriate that he and Stone can see eye-to-eye on a more despicable perpetrator. Stone pushes through the expected obstacles to find justice for the dead girl he called a friend.
Our main issue with Innocents Lost is that it feel incredibly one dimensional. There's very little subtext, and the only surprising aspect of the show is that Stone doesn't actually talk to his ex-wife at any point between the opening and closing credits. The dialogue is delivered in a way that feels too studied, as if the direction was to sound hard-boiled even when talking about coffee or the weather. Stone's romantic intrigues are now just throwaways, adding no emotional punch; his interaction with a nurturing (and strangely sultry) Boston nun is about as exciting as it gets this time. His emotional lows aren't as pronounced or meaningful, or maybe they're just too expected. Perhaps the source material was hitting a similar plateau at this point in Robert Parker's series. It isn't that we can't recommend spending an hour and a half of your life catching up with the washed out but big-hearted Jesse Stone, but Innocents Lost is the low point in the series so far.
