Apparently, no one calls New Orleans "K-Ville." Creator Jonathan Lisco says the title of FOX's upcoming series (shown by the newly launched E! in Canada) was inspired by some graffiti scribbled post-hurricane, graffiti that appears in the pilot's opening sequence. Those glimpses into a city rebuilding after disaster signal how much the new New Orleans is a character in this new cop show.
That tidbit comes from an article Bill Carter of the New York Times wrote about the show's economic impact on a city that so desperately needs to rebuild an economy.
Is it a faithful portrayal? Of course not. It's a TV show. But its aftermath-of-Katrina backdrop gives the show's atmosphere a poignancy and depth that the scripts don't quite deserve yet. K-Ville's pilot includes flashback scenes from the hurricane, showing our central characters in the thick of it, and the present-day central case of what's ultimately a straight procedural springs squarely out of issues in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Now that I've been converted, I'm going to be one of those insufferable people comparing anything that smells like a cop show with a purpose to The Wire, which is nominally a cop show, too, also set in a city spilling over with untapped-on-TV vistas, also exploring a city and its people. But The Wire is a searing look at the guts of a city and, by proxy, the issues of a country. K-Ville is not that, not yet, though it seems to be striving for something similar, giving it the potential to be something more than a conventional cop show in an unconventional setting.
Still, HBO's The Wire, soaked in hopelessness and despair, barely making a dent in the television viewing landscape, is hardly the model to emulate to attract large numbers of viewers. The network-broadcast K-Ville is wisely going with an air of optimism.
Marlin Boulet (Anthony Anderson) is the show's moral centre – with some immoral tendencies, like beating up suspects who, oops, turn out to be innocent. He's a cop torn between loyalty to his family, a wife and daughter who fled to Atlanta and are reluctant to return to the Upper 9th ward, and to the city he loves and has vowed to serve and protect. As he says when neighbours put up For Sale signs and his wife implores him to leave New Orleans with her, it can't be rebuilt if no one will fight for it. Boulet even provides the show its stab at symbolism, defending the few cypress tress left after the salt from the storm destroyed the once-ubiquitous trees. He makes me hope K-Ville will be about the struggle to reclaim a city from crime and despair and disaster, instead of just another excuse for a cop show.
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Article comments
1 - Jason
Come to think of it, New Orleans might be an interesting location for the 4th installment of the CSI franchise. What do you think?
2 - Diane Kristine
Hmm, what do I think? Does AAARRRGGGHH sum it up succinctly? :)
3 - Cynthia
I don't know where they were going with the ending of the pilot spilling everything about Cobb.(unless he's lying again. He pretty much lied with a gun in his face.) Such shady background stuff usually hangs around for the season making viewers wonder what's up. To me, it was crammed in there, spilled out and had me almost thinking sharks were jumping. (bad use of a fine actor IMHO...) They thought it would be more convincing to have a born-again criminal turned cop than a ex-military Afghan war guy struggling with a crime-cursed city and touching on American's views of the wars overseas? They've got more than just post-Katrina issues they could work with here!
4 - V. Smith
I agree. This series has a bit to go before it's must watch. I like having a black male lead on a TV drama, as well as Anthony Anderson proving once again that he's more than just another funny face, but the real K-ville's not going to be k-ville forever, and the name of the show will lose meaning as the show goes from one season to the next. IF it gets past this season.
I think that besides Anderson, Hauser and that chick late of Heroes who reminds me so much of Gina Torres, I think having a show set in somewhere other than LA, New York or the usual locales is another thing this show has going for it.
Not a must watch, but a show to watch out for.
5 - Edgar
I personally found the pilot incredibly weak and cliche that I doubt I will be there to watch the first episode. I think the idea of using New Orleans and the Katrina tragedy is just a device for the Producers to play an early sympathy card to win over an audience.
Had they done a little more subtly, perhaps even metaphorically, I would have at least respected their audacity, but this comes off too much like such a simple minded idea to simply win over a crowd by focusing on such an obvious ploy that you have to wonder whether any creativity was even involved. Why not just make an hour long documentary interviewing cops of the 9th Ward and request people watch that instead?
Sorry, but this came off a little as an exploitation of New Orleans. Once they drive past and there is a board written "Fix things my A**!" In a way, I understand that frustration. This show is a hopeless rusted tank that never even floated.
6 - Diane Kristine
This doesn't take away from your point, Edgar, but I just wanted to clarify, because it's funny - the graffiti said Fix Everything My Ass (as in, FEMA).
7 - bunny_ears
Agree with the assessment and with a lot of your comments; unfortunately, FOX is promoting the big numbers the pilot got so quantity over quality will probably prevail. The bad thing is that the show would have some promise if the scripts and focus could be punched up. Anthony Anderson did some great dramatic work on The Shield, but the scripts are the downfall of the show so far. I also wrote up a review on my website - www.tvsinner.blogspot.com.
8 - tboo
Crap. All of it...crap. Shame on them for using something everyone can identify with (hey I remember when that happened! It was on the news or something.) combined with poor writing, little research and a horrible lack of knowledge of the culture here. It's another "got it wrong" New Orleans via Hollywood crap-fest.
SUCK IT, HOLLYWOOD!!