Golden, indeed

Not since Luise Rainer parlayed a tearful phone conversation in “The Great Ziegfeld” into an Oscar has an actor done so much with so little. Theo James – who briefly inflamed feminine hearts upstairs, downstairs, on-screen and off as Byronic Lady Mary seducer Kemal Pamuk on “Downtown Abbey” – is now in it for the long haul as the star of the new CBS drama “Golden Boy,” bowing at 10 p.m. Tuesday. He plays an ambitious young detective who becomes the youngest police commissioner in New York City history in a show that bookends his rise to power with scenes of his life as top cop.

But wait: Isn’t Tom Selleck the Big Apple’s police commissioner on another CBS series? (That would be “Bluebloods,” airing at 10 p.m. Friday.) Guess you can’t have too much of a good thing. Or perhaps it’s a case of parallel universes.

Anyway, back to Theo James, happily: He brought a kind of Brando-esque rawness to his turn as the exotic Mr. Pamuk, who was pure sex beneath his riding silks, even if he did have the audacity to expire in Lady Mary’s bed after he had done the deed. We’re looking for him to turn lovers of CBS procedurals into a whole bunch of Lady Marys.

Check out our “Downton Abbey” salute in March’s “Give Me Shelter” issue. For more on Marlon and other bad boys, you’ll just have to wait for “Animal Magnetism,” the theme of April WAG.

– Georgette Gouveia