The Cleaner on A&E-review

The Cleaner which airs on A&E on Tuesdays at 10 pm is the sleeper hit of ther summer. TV Guide calls Benjamin Bratt addictive and I would have to agree. Inspired by a true story, Bratt portrays a moustached and goatied character named William Banks who is hired by clients suspecting their loved ones are using drugs. A former addict who hit bottom and spent time in prison, he commits himself to helping those in need and getting them clean. He is a private investigator to the afflicted and works with a team that consists of himself, Darnell played by Kevin Michael Richardson, Akani played by Grace Park and Swenton played byEsteban Powell.

The home page on A&E describes Banks as an extreme interventionist who uses unconventional methods to uncover the truth about the people he is hired to spy on. His team will go undercover, snoop through their personal belongings, pose as buyers and eventually get them cut off from their dealer at which point they bottom out and this is where the recovery is supposed to begin and the episode usually ends. It is like a Crime Scene Investigation meets Intervention with a tone that is at once mellow, spiritual and suspenseful. It is always intriguing and it forces us to empathize with the characters' struggles: their struggles to come to terms with a problem that is ruining their lives. The recovery is not the central focus of The Cleaner - the chase is the focus and that is what makes it compelling.

Banks is a very human character trying to balance his devotion to helping others like him and to his family who has recently let him back into their lives. In contrast to the manic scenes of cocaine sniffing of the intervened, his home life feels like a slow dance waiting to combust. With each new episode, he and his wife Melissa, played by Amy Price-Francis, talk their way closer to a sexual reconciliation - William sleeps on the couch and his bemused expressions of sexual frustration make him charming. Lula, his daughter, played by Liliana Mumy has embraced his return home without a second thought but his son Ben, played by Brett Delbuono is a little more sceptical.

In last week's episode titled Chaos Theory, the team is hired to follow a university professor who uses to cope with the pressures of publishing a thesis.

The opening sequence has Melissa explaining to Lula and Ben about Quinn, a friend of William's he met in prison and who is credited with saving William's life. These are some of the hard issues that they must tackle as a family but it is done with a finesse and warmth that is very powerful. They are planning for a party in which the very rich and hearty folky theme song is sung: Follow That Sound ( until I can't be found) by Sharon Little.

After the party, Ben finds a siringe on the bathroom floor and suspects that his father is using again. He tells his mother and she confronts William asking 'Is it yours?' And then adds: " I used to pick them up" and "You were a great liar". He says no and vows to find out to whom it belongs.

Meanwhile, the team has 'moved in' on Teddy, the professor and he is close to bottoming out. They find him in a park trying to score, tranquilize him and transport him to the recovery house.
William confronts Quinn about the siringe and at first he denies it is his but then admits that he is the one who brought it into the house. William tells Quinn he is no longer welcome in his home.
The episode ends with the lyrics to a song by the Band of Horses: 'When I lived alone, was there a ghost in my house?'

Much of the intrigue lies in the family drama and the ways in which they deal with the issues that recovery forces them to confront as well as in the new strategies the team devises to pursue the addicted.