{alltv} 'Running Wilde' is funny, but it lacks solid footing

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Sometimes, sad to say, really talented people get really bad ideas.

No one can question the writing gifts of Mitch Hurwitz or the acting chops of Will Arnett, who plays self-deluded, slightly slimy characters as well as anyone on earth. The duo gave us the brittle brilliance of Arrested Development, a classic if not widely embraced sitcom, one of the fledgling century's best.

With Arrested, they proved to be master purveyors of the heartless family comedy, a genre barrier few others have ever tried to broach. With Wilde, they branch out to heartless romantic comedy, which, I fear, is a branch too far.

Once again, Arnett is playing rich, self-involved and stupid, this time as Steve Wilde, the spoiled, silly son of an oil tycoon. Steve has an equally shallow best friend (Peter Serafinowicz), a loyal servant who steals from him (Mel Rodriguez) and a manny who still smothers him (Robert Michael Morris, trapped in a witless, pointless stereotype). What he doesn't have is the love of the girl who got away, a professional do-gooder named Emmy (Felicity's Keri Russell).

She's off in the Amazon with her fiancé (David Cross), caring for a tribe that doesn't want her care. That arrangement doesn't do much for her more sensible daughter (Stefania Owen, playing virtually the only likable character), but luckily for her, Steve is about to intervene. He wants Emmy back, and she may be willing to take him — assuming she can completely change him.

That's an old rom-com setup, the type Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock can pull off in their sleep. But for the romance to take hold, we have to see some acceptable-partner quality in Steve, some innate charm, untapped good or sexual magnetism that makes you root for a happily-ever-after ending. Instead, Arnett imbues him with the same amusingly creepy patina that works well for him on Arrested and 30 Rock but works against him here.

Unfortunately, Russell fares little better. She's never looked lovelier, but the writers made the character too self-righteous to be attractive. Nor does it help that they've undermined any chance we might have of taking Emmy's relationship issues seriously by teaming her with Cross, another talented Arrested alumnus who is badly miscast here.

On the plus side, Hurwitz and Arnett aren't capable of making a half-hour of TV that doesn't make you laugh at least now and then. (Arnett's obliviousness is almost ceaselessly amusing.) They're the kind of inventive, idiosyncratic artists you want on TV, but if they don't find a way to make us care about these characters, they won't be there long.

And yes, that would be too bad.

Running Wilde
* * (out of four)
Fox, Tuesday, 9:30 ET/PT