The CBS plot synopsis reveals that the episode will feature lead detective Lilly Rush as she investigates a 1983 case of a slain youth, somehow mixed up in gangs and love, in Philadelphia's Chinatown.

Everything (predictably) gets more complicated when some sort of conspiracy or cover-up is unearthed, suspicious Chinese people don't trust the police, and so forth.

Sure, it could be worse (Without a Trace). Alright, at least some Asian actors and actresses, some of whom are not feigning an accent, are getting television exposure.

Doubtless, the tragedy of the Golden Dragon Massacre in San Francisco's Chinatown that made national headlines makes excellent screenwriting fodder. Add to that some foreign mystique, exotic beauties, the underworld of gang culture, maybe a youth struggling between becoming a model minority and a gangster, and you've got yet another formulaic, uninspired television episode.

Sigh. I would have expected better from Cold Case, which has tackled issues of sexual identity and race in the pasts, including a decent episode that featured a moving glimpse into the Japanese internment.

But judging by the episode trailer, we'll have to wait until Sunday to see just how much more Chinatown, Anywhere, USA, can be smeared by Hollywood stereotyping.

I can only hope for something different. My fingers are crossed, in accordance with an ancient, mysterious ritual of the fabled Western world.