Getting to K-Ville: Jonathan Lisco Talks About New FOX Series

About a year ago, Peter Liguori, then President of Entertainment at FOX Broadcasting Company, called producer Jonathan Lisco with an idea. Lisco tells us that Liguori said to him, "I want to do a cop show and I know it should be set in New Orleans." When Lisco asked for more detail, he was told by Liguori, again as told by Lisco, "Hey, you're the writer, you'll figure it out."

And, figure it out Lisco did.

This fall, FOX will be premiering their newest cop show, K-Ville, set in present day New Orleans. Lisco says that the post-hurricane city is the "context" and "backdrop," of the story. It is there to "enhance the narrative as opposed to be[ing] the set-piece of the narrative." Instead, the main narrative is about the officers on the squad, mainly Marlin Boulet (Anthony Anderson) and Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser). Both are, naturally, flawed heroes who have a number of obstacles to overcome in their professional and personal lives. As Lisco says, "At the end of the day, the show is going to live or die based on your level of commitment to Anthony and Cole's characters and the surrounding cast."

One of the New Orleans police officers that Lisco did a ride-along with in his research for the show invited Lisco into his house at the end of the day. There, Lisco noticed that the place was "barely standing," and that the officer was sleeping in a sleeping bag on a plank on the floor, while trying to put it all back together. The officer's family had moved to Atlanta, but he stayed because he loved the job and his wife knew that. Not coincidentally, this is how we are introduced to Marlin Boulet in K-Ville's pilot. It is a strong introduction to a character. It instantly shows that the character on-screen is good, but struggles with problems of his own. Boulet is, as is shown in the pilot, a good cop, but one who is sometimes wayward, who bends rules. Lisco explains that this is a usual refrain in other shows he has written for (NYPD Blue and The District), where officers enforce the "spirit of the law" as opposed to the letter.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

Visit Josh Lasser's author page — Josh Lasser's Blog