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The opening moments of the new CBS crime drama "Stalker" (Wednesday, 9 p.m., Ch. 2) may be the most disturbing you'll see on TV this fall.
A masked man chases a woman down the street, splashing gasoline all over her. She makes it inside her car, but has lost her keys. He dumps gas on her car, lights a match and sets the car ablaze. She screams in terror as she is burned to death.
Consider it a look inside the mind of creator/executive producer/writer Kevin Williamson. And a glimpse into the thought process of the CBS executives who put the show on their schedule.
"It's eerie. It's creepy. It's suspenseful like a thriller," said Williamson ("The Following," "Scream"). "It has sort of a what-lurks-in-the-dark quality."
And that burn-the-woman-to-death opening "was maybe being a little flashy to try to get picked up."
He makes light of the situation, but "Stalker" can also be seen as ramping up the violence-against-women theme that permeates television. Whether it's "Criminal Minds," "SVU," "CSI," "The Blacklist," "Tyrant," "True Detective" or even Williamson's "The Following," women in jeopardy is a staple of TV drama.
Williamson cited statistics that one in six women and one in 19 men are stalked at some point, and there is a subplot in the pilot about a man stalking another man. "When you look at the whole season, I think what you're going to see is I actually balance it out because ... I don't want to become a show that's just about violence against women," he said.
Still, "Stalker" unquestionably uses horrific violence against women as a way to draw viewers. Williamson, however, rejects any such criticism.
"I don't think of myself as someone who writes and makes stylized violence at all," he said. "I try to tell emotional stories."
He even ludicrously compared "Stalker" to "Dawson's Creek," the teen drama he created in the late '90s, at the same time rejecting comparisons to the ultra-violent, serial-killer drama "The Following," which he calls a "popcorn thriller" that has "sort of a stabby-stab element to it," Williamson said. "But ['Stalker'] is a crime drama.... This follows the lives of these detectives of this unique unit that sort of investigates the crime of stalking on a weekly basis."
Maggie Q and Dylan McDermott star as the two lead detectives, and there are twists to their stories that are preposterous. Twists that are more appropriate to a "popcorn thriller."
And when confronted by questions about where the entertainment value lies in "Stalker," Williamson took the easy way out.
"Turn the channel," he said.
That's good advice for any viewer. But it doesn't address the issue of ramping up violence in general — and violence against women in particular — in this rather appalling show.
Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.