The Philanthropist
Premieres 6/24 10/9c

Filmed in South Africa, Mozambique and Prague, "The Philanthropist," starring James Purefoy ("Rome"), is an eight-part drama for NBC that follows the heroic adventures of Teddy Rist, billionaire playboy-turned-vigilante philanthropist, taking him across the globe from Haiti to Myanmar, Kashmir to Paris, Kosovo to San Diego. But the story starts off in Nigeria.

Teddy loves money, women and power, but following a severe flood in a Nigerian town, he is haunted by the memory of a young boy he rescued. Teddy is spontaneous and impulsive and quickly decides to channel his passion, power and money into helping those in need. The danger and risk to his life is the only way Teddy can feel genuinely alive and he'll do anything in order to achieve his goals and keep the adrenaline pumping; putting his business head and money-making skills to good use through bargaining with the self-righteous, making deals with drug barons, and trading with the nefarious.

But these actions are not just about helping others -- Teddy is purging his soul to help exorcise the inner demons that have been festering ever since his young son died and he lost everything he truly loved.

The pilot is written by Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street") and is directed by Peter Horton ("Grey's Anatomy") and boasts a heady cast of established and up-and-coming talent. Purefoy takes on the lead role of Teddy Rist, Jesse L. Martin ("Law & Order") plays Teddy's business partner and friend, Phillip Maidstone, and Neve Campbell ("Burn Up") plays Olivia, Phillip's wife, who also runs the charitable foundation set up by the two billionaires.

I've read a few reviews and it sounds promising. I didn't know it was only considered a "8 Part Drama" though.

Filmed 8 episodes and NBC decided not to continue? Or was always planned that way?

I'm giving this a try. Heard alot of good things about Fontana's previous works as a writer/producer.

I think they were intending to make this a 13 episode mid-season series originally, but it had so many behind the scenes problems, that they are making it a 1 and done series.

Excerpt from ReadingEagle:

Yet by helping people, Rist begins to feel better. Each episode will take viewers to another country. The three actors independently say they hope this program will last beyond the scheduled eight episodes but recognize that it's a very expensive venture.

``Eight episodes is such a small number when you are doing television, unless you are doing a miniseries, then it's too many numbers,'' Martin says. ``There are so many places we could go with these stories and so much we could do with the actors.''

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=144242

I'll check it out to see how good/bad Neve Campbell looks.

I plan to tune in -- previews look intriguing.

Jesse L Martin and Neve Campbell seem like an odd pairing as husband and wife.

Great review in the NY Post.

Just watched it. Very good show. Purefoy is a cross between Hugh Jackman and Mel Gibson.

Probably wont do gangbusters ratings wise, so 8 episodes sounds about right.

Neve Campbell got a bit old and chunky. Then again, maybe my eyes are going.

Only 8? I thought about checking it out, but now, pass.

Not just you -- she definitely put on some weight.

I'll continue to tune in to see where this goes.

I enjoyed it.

Hmmm, I thought Neve Campbell looked pretty good. Love Purefoy.

That logic makes no sense.

Sometimes 8 is enough.

That was all they had time to produce. The production on this show got started really late because they had trouble casting the lead, who eventually became Purefoy.

For the most part - I enjoyed this.

LOL --- This made me think of 'Family Guy' -- anyway, I really enjoyed the first episode, I'll watch the next 7 shows ..

Hmmm, I really did not enjoy the heavy handed exposition of him telling the story in the bar. I did think it would have been funny if each episode had been him telling the bartender and then at the end of the series she finds out he had been making it all up.

I'll continue to watch but I hope next week will have a different structure.

Heavy handed is a good way to describe the show.

I enjoyed it but thought it all was a bit to preachy, but it's a bit early.

Who cares if its 8, 13 or 110 episodes. If they tell a good story and the acting is strong, it's good television.

I thought the 2nd episode was much better than the pilot. Neve is being wasted in this show so far (though it's not about her).

I hate the forced Jay Leno intro before the start. Just letting us know that this upcoming show (or any other show you've enjoyed at 10PM on NBC) has been axed for my lame crap.

I enjoyed the pilot and look forward to watching all 8. I actually like that it's being treated as a miniseries at this point, so I don't get my hopes dashed yet again when it's not renewed. I expect only 8 episodes, and that's what I'll get.

Two episodes and I think I am out. I am just not enjoying any of these characters at all.

Unless I missed something, did he just leave that one guy at the work camp in place of the father he rescued? He did not seem that broken up about it and what would happen to that guy after he left. That kind of bugged me for some reason.

He wasn't upset about it because the guy he left behind was absolute trash. Where as most of the characters Rist met in Myanmar were pretty upstanding citizens (to an extent). The guy he left behind was a taxi driver who constantly held out for more money, refused to do what he was paid to do, drove off with their luggage, after being fired from his job; attempted to pimp out his 12-16 year old sisters. Wait it gets "better" for this jerk: Rist then goes to hire him again and the guy is beating his sister up. His final mistake was refusing to do translation work for Rist unless he was paid even more.

The old ladies and children do not need to work that mine, that guy does.

Not only was that guy not worth saving but he had no choice. He had to make the trade. He wanted to save everyone else. He wanted to stop the funding. All he could think about was saving that little girl's life by getting her father out of there. It stemmed back to the loss of his own son.

I thought the last time the guy left at the camp was shown, he was paying off the leader with the money extorted from Rist.

I am gonna stick this one out. Great premise with a stellar cast. Misses with preaching and melodrama, but hits with action and suspense. This would have been better as an HBO show.

Pizza girl (October Road) is adorable as the strawberry blond assistant. I just wish they would eliminate the Bing! ad with her at the beginning of the show.

Lindy Booth

Alright, I gave this 2 episodes and did not like it at all.

The Pilot was watchable, but I struggled to make it through it and alot of the story just didn't interest me. I really did not enjoy the past-tense story-telling. That to me is a huge turnoff, especially for a serialized show like this.

Episode 2 about Burma had an interesting premise, but again did not enjoy the past-tense story-telling. I struggled to make it through 35 minutes, before I threw in the towel and deleted the remaining episode off my DVR.

One of the problems I was having is that I was just wasn't clicking with James Purefoy as the lead. I don't think he has the charm/screen precense to make this character likeable or even remotely interesting even though his causes are noble.

Another thing that annoyed me was the In-Show plugs to Bing.com.

There is simply no way in hell this gets renewed. Especially since all the episodes are shot overseas.