It seems only fitting that all heist stories now routinely steal from each other. The makeup of a heist gang has achieved the level of cultural archetype: the older gentleman, the techno geek, the gorgeous brunette, the handsome daredevil, and the devious mastermind. (Sadly, heist gangs rarely include smart-alecky television critics.) I personally prefer the slick solo operator, such as Steve McQueen’s incarnation as heistmeister Thomas Crown, but enjoy the occasional gang heist, too – I loved “The Italian Job” and “Ocean’s Twelve,” and, most of all, Joseph Sargent’s great 1974 subwayheist caper, “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.”

It’s not hard to understand how the director and co-creator of NBC’s “Heist,” Doug Liman, came to recast the genre for American network television. Mr. Liman has been making a name for himself on the “Bourne” movies, terrific le Carre-style popcorn thrillers with zigzag twists, and last summer’s lesser “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Even though I prefer the sensibility of Mr. Liman’s earlier movies – “Swingers” and “Go” – I can see how NBC wanted a show like “Heist” that plays to the youth market’s taste for his style.

A Liman movie takes an opaque path, skimming the surface of conversation in a pale but pleasing imitation of Quentin Tarantino. (And it was Mr. Tarantino who himself borrowed from the “Pelham One Two Three” script in naming his 1992 “Reservoir Dogs” characters after colors. See how it works?) But translated to television, the Liman lingo doesn’t play quite so well. Everything floats by so fast that it’s hard to even care. By the end of the “Heist” pilot tomorrow night at 10 p.m. – in the time slot owned by “Law & Order” for the last 14 years – we’ll be wishing we’d been given a better reason to come back.

There’s an effort made to woo us, of course. A sexy detective falls for a sexy thief. Self-consciously funny dialogue about Mother Teresa’s religious beliefs consumes two guys casing a jewelry store. Two good-looking thieves kiss each other while chewing gum – the standard act of pseudo-sexy confidence from a heist gang member. (Is gum-kissing ever fun?) Every new camera angle seems to call for a costume change.

But what does it matter? There’s nothing in this serialized drama to engage us for the long haul.The pilot sets up a robbery of Beverly Hills jewelry stores during Academy Awards week, but by the end of the episode, the job isn’t done. (NBC only sent one episode of “Heist” to critics, not exactly a vote of confidence for the show’s longevity.) This sort of ongoing, unfolding story seems to me the downside of shows like “Heist,””Prison Break,””24,” and even “Lost.” We’re expected to sign on for every episode, or risk losing the thread. It doesn’t seem fair.Most of us can barely squeeze in “Lost,” “American Idol,” and “The Sopranos” into our busy schedules – especially when breaks between new episodes (like this sea son’s “Lost”) create lulls without fresh stories for two or more weeks. So why “Heist,” and why now? That’s a question Mr. Liman and his writers, Mark and Robb Cullen of FX’s “Lucky,” fail to answer.

The best they can do is deliver us some great actor to sell this thin gruel, in the hope that we’ll get hooked on personality. It’s not a bad bet when you have Dougray Scott as master thief Mickey O’Neil, who’s running the operation and engages Detective Amy Sykes (Michele Hicks) in some serious foreshadowing of future developments. (Translation: nothing much happens in the pilot.) Seymour Cassel classes up the joint despite the fact that his character is actually named “Pops.” And there are some flashes of witty and barbed racial humor between beefy white Detective Billy O’Brien (Billy Gardell) and his black counterpart, Detective Tyrese Evans (Reno Wilson), who, naturally, get paired against their will. “This is just like ‘Lethal Weapon,'” O’Brien snaps at Evans, “except I really hate you.” But in the end, it’s all a middling mess of crazy ideas and sharp angles and nice jackets.

You can’t blame NBC for wanting to get some serial-programming action going to compete with ABC and Fox. The network has already announced a fall pickup for a series called “Kidnapped,” a serial drama about the child of wealthy New York executives who gets snatched. Sound familiar? That was the plot of Ron Howard’s 1996 Mel Gibson thriller, “Ransom.” At least there’s no question NBC’s drama executives know how to work a heist.