Lots of Mood, Little Suspense in ‘Others’

“The Others” not only depicts the dead, it is dead.

This new paranormal drama caps NBC’s Saturday night of oddities that began the season with the 8 p.m. “Freaks and Geeks” preceding “The Pretender” and “Profiler.”

Even more freaky and geeky is “The Others,” which opens with college student Marian Kitt (Julianne Nicholson) reluctantly joining a group of unconventional types who, like her, have “the gift” of relating to things supernatural.

What they lack is a gift for sustaining an hour of drama, one pretentiously smoky and underlit (Would someone please turn on a light?), and thick with spooky black blobs and piercing shrieks.

Although there’s a distraught elderly woman here who is convinced her house is haunted (and of course it is), the premiere turns mostly on Marian having supposedly terrifying encounters with her dorm room’s former female occupant, who is dead. This ultimately segues to one of her fellow “others,” a blind grouch named Albert Taylor (John Aylward), lurching forward with clenched fists, shouting: “The room! Don’t go back to that room! It needs you! It’ll take you! You’ll die if you stay in that room!”

Just why is not entirely clear, with viewers expected to assume from the heavy mood and ponderous dialogue, apparently, that what’s going on is too deep and profound to be explained.

Besides Marian and Albert, the “others” are dashing Mark Gabriel (Gabriel Macht), a first-year medical resident; Ellen Satori (Melissa Crider), who earns her living communicating with “the other side”; Prof. Miles Ballard (John Billingsley) “of the university”; rubber room candidate Warren Day (Kevin J. O’Connor), who runs around screaming numbers; and super medium Elmer Greentree (Bill Cobbs).

How super? Elmer is not only the glue that holds the group together, he has amazing powers of persuasion, witness how the nurse who orders him from a hospital room tonight backs off meekly when he replies: “I’m not here.”

Fox’s “The X-Files” has raised the bar so high that other shows about the supernatural inevitably seem pastel in contrast. There’s nothing especially thoughtful or suspenseful here, for example, and Episodes 1 and 2, after raising expectations of creepiness, both end with soft thuds.

In addition to being very confused, next week’s hour is so slow that you’ll swear you’re meeting yourself coming the other direction. Much of that inertia ultimately settles on that good actor Cobbs, who looks and sounds as weary as you may feel.

At one point next week, the highly sensitive Mark is watching television when he suddenly starts crying. You’ll know the feeling.

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* “The Others” can be seen tonight at 10 on NBC. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).