Snap Judgment: 'K-Ville'
Sep 18, 2007, 05:24 PM | by Mike Bruno
Categories: Snap Judgment, Television
The problem with any cop show is that it will come off as, well, "just another cop show." Considering that there are now nearly as many Law & Order and CSI series as there are days of the week — and the fact that HBO's The Wire and FX's The Shield have set the genre's bar so high — it seemed that K-Ville's best hope at success would be to
distinguish itself by mining the drama inherent to a show set in post-Katrina New Orleans. And really, a simple camera sweep across the
flood-ravaged city and its helpless (and abandoned) inhabitants — seen in a flashback early on in last night's premiere — is enough to tug at
the heart strings. But for the most part, I found myself just mildly
entertained by what, unfortunately, did feel like just another cop show, albeit
one where the lead characters drop by voodoo shops and grub on shrimp po' boys and gumbo.
Anthony Anderson (pictured,left) is great. On The Shield, his O.G. Antwon Mitchell single-handedly flipped Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) on his head with a smug "I ain't afraid of nobody" bravado. So needless to say, I was excited to see him as the lead in this new show, and for the most part, he didn't disappoint in the role of maverick cop Marlin Boulet. And overcoming the clichéd good-cop–bad-cop dynamic, there is some genuine chemistry between the bourbon-slugging Boulet and his new (and briefly mysterious) partner Trevor Cobb, played by co-star Cole Hauser (right). But nothing like the flashes of brilliance in the few scenes in which Boulet was paired with Charlie (Derek Webster), an ex-partner who broke his heart by running off on him when the crap hit the fan following the catastrophic storm.
But the show fell short with its rushed pace. In the first 30 minutes alone, we had two shootings, a car chase, a suspect tortured, and Marlin's daughter's room flooded by a fire hose. What keeps me on the edge of my seat is action followed by good drama, and this first episode — which introduced its characters, set up the myriad side stories (Marlin fighting for his family, Marlin trying to keep his beloved Ninth Ward intact, Marlin and his unresolved past with Charlie), and then presented and solved the episode's whodunit — didn't take time to build drama. So, for instance, it was a fairly interesting to learn that it was the businessman's daughter who was killing people as part of an elaborate real-estate scam, but that revelation would've had a much greater impact if we were more engaged in the story of the city's efforts to help the Katrina-devastated people. Instead, it was a good twist, but a fleeting one.
Another good twist that played out too quickly was Trevor's
backstory. We learned that the Cincinnati native escaped from a New
Orleans
prison during the storm and, after watching a friend drown, became a
cop
because he pledged to do good with the rest of his life if given a
second
chance. Why couldn't they have built that up slower, carry it over a
few
episodes, keep us engaged? It would've been a great way to get me to
tune back
in next week. Perhaps it was merely a case of their trying to do too
much in the first episode, but nevertheless, I'm not sure they gave
me enough reason to add yet another cop
show to my DVR rotation. What about you, P-Dubbers? Did K-Ville tickle
your
fancy or leave you flat? And, of course, make sure to check the magazine for our critic's official take on the show.
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