Who is 'The Sentinel'?

(source Paramount Pictures - http://www.paramount.com/tvsentinel/)

THE SENTINEL, which is set in the fictional city of Cascade, Washington, stars Richard Burgi as Lt. Detective Jim Ellison. A buddy cop drama, the action-adventure series focuses on a veteran police detective, the lone survivor of a Special Forces helicopter crash in Peru, who after surviving 18 months in the hostile jungle comes to find that he has developed incredibly heightened sensory powers. Much like tribal cultures where watchmen, or "sentinels," honed  their senses to the highest degree, Ellison now sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels with searing prowess, skills he utilizes to track down terrorists, hijackers and assassins. Feeling almost overwhelmed by the power of his own skills, Ellison reluctantly teams up with anthropology graduate student Blair Sandburg (Garret Maggart), whose knowledge of the "sentinel" myth helps Ellison harness his newly discovered powers. Sandburg becomes a permanent police department observer -- which means he gets drawn into a host of missions and investigations, often to Ellison's chagrin -- Ellison becomes a hunter of evil, a one-of-a-kind crime fighter...and THE SENTINEL comes to life.

Ellison and Sandburg report to Simon Banks (Bruce A. Young), a veteran captain who often shuns behind-the-desk work for on-the-scene involvement. Banks has reluctantly overcome his initial hesitancy to use Ellison's special powers, and, in fact, begins to rely on them as a useful tool in solving difficult crimes. As his trust in Ellison increases, Banks expands his "by-the-book" approach to law enforcement, tackling cases he couldn't have attempted to crack before Ellison and Sandburg joined forces.