In what might unfortunately be the cancer-struck actor’s final works, Patrick Swayze’s real life drama adds depth to his character in A&E’s crime drama “The Beast,” which premieres tonight at 10.

Revolving around an undercover FBI veteran, Charlie Barker played by Swayze, who takes it to the streets with everyone, including his much younger partner, the series is hard to evaluate without considering the actor’s illness which has been making plenty of headlines ahead of the series premiere.

The bad news about Swayze’s health came after the pilot was shot in November 2007, but the 56-year-old decided to stick with the project despite his disease and so he did, not skipping more than a day of work throughout the filming of the 12 subsequent episodes.

“When we found out Patrick had cancer, it was four hours after he found out we got picked up,” co-creator William Rotko said. Swayze insisted he could still do the show. A&E and Sony decided to go ahead without the usual policy insuring the show against health problems for its star.

Putting the cop-drama clichés aside, “The Beast” mainly delivers a rather predictable cop fare, slightly more explicit in word and deed, while Swayze is definitely not the romantic we know from "Dirty Dancing" or “Ghost.” He’s more like the one in “Road House,” which is almost safe to call an action movie.

As the rough and haggard-looking Charles Barker, Swayze seems to bring a new aura of authenticity to his screen persona. He offers his advice in terse, epigrammatic shorthand, a style of speaking well-suited to Swayze's delivery and acting range. He handles the sprinkles of dark humor amid the busting of heads really well.

In the pilot, as an undercover FBI agent, Barker tries to infiltrate the world of an arms dealer, and also becomes unknowingly to him, the subject of an FBI internal investigation,  headed by Ray (Larry Gilliard Jr.) who suspects that Barker might have gone rogue due to having his own way of fighting crime, not following “bureau protocol,” in the very dark and gritty corners of Chicago.

Barker’s sidekick and cocky apprentice, Ellis Dove, played by former Calvin Klein underwear model Travis Fimmel, is pressured by Ray to cooperate with the investigation, but he also wants to remain loyal to his mentor.

Although it delivers some decent performances, “The Beast” turns out to be just another TV cop drama in a sea of cop dramas. What sets it apart is Swayze, who cuts a compelling figure even though there are long stretches where it’s Fimmel who’s the center of dramatic tension. As the season progresses, maybe the execution will live up to its, and Swayze’s, ambitions.