Jesse Stone our dour detective with a fondness for drink and seeing his shrink is back. So more long stares, more slow jazz music and every other cliché to remind the audience that this is not the high adrenaline Magnum but Tom Selleck the actor. However talking slowly and looking miserable does not make you an acting great.

Jesse Stone is suspended by Paradise town council itself looking like a rather corrupt bunch. This leaves Suitcase in temporary charge who is investigating a hold up of a convenience store. The state homicide boss, Captain Healy hires him as a consultant in the hunt for a suspected serial killer who as it turns out may be the secretary of the local boxing promoter and gangster Gino Fish played by William Sandler and maybe the more interesting character in the cast.

You can tell Stone is a great detective because he follows Fish's secretary and suddenly discovers that he has ended up in the gay area of town. It looks like its the first time he has ever realised there is a gay quarter!

Talking about sloppy writing I never did figure out how they managed to solve the general store subplot so conveniently.

"Jesse Stone: No Remorse" is a 2010 movie based on the character created by Robert B. Parker.

I like a lot of things about these movies, one of which is how incidental characters are carried through to the next story, for instance, Emily Bishop, now working in a convenience store; and Hasty, now out of prison and still in love with his ex-wife.

In this film, Jesse has been suspended by the town council and isn't supposed to be talking to Suitcase or to Rose. And now he has a cell phone and Rose has the number, if he could only figure out how to work it.

Healy (Steven McHattie) hires Jesse as a consultant to look into a series of murders. Jesse gets the word that everyone on the police force is going to be fired, and the council plans on using these unsolved murders as an excuse. So Jesse points out it would behoove everyone involved to get them solved.

My problem with these movies, though I think the stories are good, is Tom Selleck. I happen to be a fan of his. What I like about him is his smile, his flair for comedy, and his immense charm. None of which he displays here. He has a sad, depressed look on his face and mumbles his lines, and it's supposedly called ACTING. It's a generic, monotone performance. If a more complex actor were playing this role it would help the movies.

I read a story from a woman who gave EST-type courses to actors, in which she promised them a result - not stardom, but something. There was this one guy in the class who would get close to roles but never get them. She called his agent and told the actor, I have wonderful news. You have no talent.

Now, the actor was very upset, but the teacher pointed out to him that now, he didn't have to worry - all he had to do was use his charm and his winning personality to sell the role and not worry about the other stuff.

She ends her chapter in this book by saying the actor became a household name. Given that this was written at the time that Magnum was so big, I have always suspected the actor was Selleck.

Whether it was or not, this role does not play to his strong points. He's not Al Pacino and he shouldn't pretend he is.

Tom Selleck in No Remorse, another film in his Jesse Stone series has shown his range as a player. No two detectives could be more different than the flip and cool Thomas Magnum of Magnum, PI and the grim and determined Jesse Stone, a man with issues, but who still gets his job done.

Whether he has a job is a question though. From the last film Selleck has been left on suspension pending a hearing from his job as chief of the small Paradise, Massachusetts police force. Colleagues Kathy Baker and Kohl Sudduth are trying to carry on as best they can with a string of convenience store robberies plaguing the town.

In addition the homicide chief of the Massachusetts State Police, Stephen McHattie has asked Selleck to help very unofficially with a homicide that involves a connected fight promoter William Sadler and his personal assistant Todd Hoffey. It has to be unofficial because of Selleck's suspension, but Tom even with the suspension cramping his style he gets results in both cases.

Todd Hoffey in addition to Selleck walks off the acting honors here. This is one very jealous young man who will do anything to keep his relationship with Sadler alive and he tolerates no one else getting close. One should also make note of William Devane as a psychiatrist treating Selleck.

The Jesse Stone films are well made and I look forward to seeing the next one when it debuts on television.