Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost show how the title character truly needs his job to function. Tom Selleck's first TV franchise was Magnum P.I., which made him a huge star in the 1980s. This breezy action series followed the titular P.I.'s adventures in Hawaii and ran for eight seasons. During the show's run Selleck made a bid for big-screen stardom too; while High Road To China and Runaway underperformed, he scored major hits with Three Men And A Baby and it's 1990 sequel.
Selleck has mostly stuck with TV, including notable TV movies like Last Stand At Saber River, Ike: Countdown To D-Day, and a memorable recurring role on Friends. He's currently part of the cast of Blue Bloods, a CBS drama focusing on a family of cops in New York. The series has been running since 2010 and is set to return for an eleventh series.
Another major Tom Selleck franchise is the Jesse Stone TV movie series, which began back in 2005 with Jesse Stone: Stone Cold. The movies are based on the noir novels by the late Robert B. Parker and focus on Selleck's Stone, who is the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts. Jesse's a great cop but one who is haunted by numerous demons, including a failed marriage and alcoholism.
By the time the seventh movie Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost comes around, Jesse has been forced out of the police chief job. He's given a partial pension, but without his work to anchor him, he starts drinking more and shutting out his ex-wife Jen and therapist Dr. Dix (William Devane, 24). He's also been replaced by a new chief called Butler, who isn't popular with deputies Rose or Simpson and Jesse is set on getting his old job back.
Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost isn't based on a novel, and is instead an original story from Selleck and co-writer Michael Brandman. The film digs into what makes Jesse Stone tick when he finds himself a civilian, and needless to say, he doesn't function well. In fact, it's only when he's called upon to consult in the case of a liquor store robbery that he regains focus and resumes his therapy. He also uses his new position to look into the death of a student he once arrested, who died in suspicious circumstances. This case becomes personal and leads him to a rehab clinic run by a shady doctor.
It's not all doom and gloom for Jesse, as he's started a new relationship with a woman named Thelma (Gloria Reuben, Lincoln). Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost isn't the best of the long-running series, but it's still a solid story that offers a new side to Jesse and what drives him. There was never a chance he'd just retire and fade away quietly, as his identity is closely tied to being a cop.