'Human Target' is 'escapist entertainment'

PASADENA, Calif. — If you tune in to "Human Target" looking to grow some new brain cells, you're going to be sadly disappointed.

This new Fox series, which debuts Sunday at 7 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13, is quite a bit of fun to watch. It's a slam-bang action adventure with comedy and a little bit of personal drama. And it doesn't aspire to be anything more than that.

"What we're doing is just entertainment — escapist entertainment," said Chi McBride, who co-stars as Winston.

Based on the DC Comics graphic novel, "Human Target" is about Christopher Chance (Mark Valley), who hires himself out as a "human target" — he protects people who are in mortal danger.

In Sunday's premiere, that's a woman (Tricia Helfer) on a bullet train.

He's not your typical bodyguard, however. He integrates himself into his clients' lives. He's on board as his train-designer client's aide — until he has to save her from the Bad Guys.

And there's all sorts of action, adventures and danger along the way.

That and no small degree of humor. Chance is pretty funny, and the interplay between him; his partner, Winston; and Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley), a tough guy/computer whiz.

"We all want to pretend what would we do if we were Chance," said executive producer McG. "We get to live vicariously through this guy who thinks on the fly and comes up with the answers. In a great many ways, the bad guys take it in the shorts. So it's wish fulfillment in that respect."

More than anything else, "Human Target" is sort of a throwback to action films of the '70s and '80s, which didn't take themselves too seriously.

"I think in the last 10 years, action movies have become very severe," said executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg. "They've become very dour, in a way. … We're just trying to have fun. I think action movies were there for fun when I was a kid, and they've kind of stopped being that. That's what we're trying to do, is just to kind of find that tone again and find the soul of those movies and bring them back."

"Human Target" manages to put people in mortal danger without making it seem all that serious, in a way.