Thursday , March 28 2024
This weekend I spent some time on the red carpet for K-Ville's premiere party.

On The Red Carpet for K-Ville

Yes, I was the lonely guy at the end of the "Red Carpet" this weekend. The carpet was in fact off-red, but I was the guy at the end of it. The music from Republic, a New Orleans club, was blaring out at me, which made it moderately hard to hear my interviewees, but the air conditioning was pouring out as well, which more than made up for the noise. And, there I was, with my little audio recorder and no press pass, basking in the music and the air conditioning, and trying (with help) to flag down the stars of K-Ville.

K-Ville is, for those unaware, FOX's new show about a group of New Orleans police officers in the present day, dealing with the rebuilding of the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Traveling through the city, it is clear that a lot of work still has to happen there, and the show, which films on location, will certainly chronicle some of that effort.

Up first for me were Dominic Purcell and Amaury Nolasco. Though they were not there as a part of K-Ville, they do star in some other show on FOX. It's something called Prison Break, wherein it seems guys break out of prison, go on the run, and then one of them ends up back in prison. They let me in on a little about what is going to happen this coming season, but you are probably not interested in that, so back to K-Ville

Then came a K-Ville guy, Blake Shields. He plays a younger cop on the force, Jeff "Glue Boy" Gooden. Clearly there was only one question to be asked, but Blake is not sure why exactly his character has that name. He has not yet asked, because he likes the speculation surrounding it. He does, however have a theory; his character is "a step behind" and the butt of some jokes on the force, "so they kind of mess with him… like he huffed too much glue in high school."

Next, John Carroll Lynch (Drew Carey's brother on The Drew Carey Show) came my way. After some good-natured ribbing about me being there on the carpet, he identifies his character, Captain James Embry as "one of the guys who stayed during the storm." Lynch thinks that this allows for a different sort of relationship between himself and the detectives, one that is "much more personal." After watching the pilot, it's clear that Embry is going to have to come down hard on some of his detectives during the season, but it is going to come from a different place than the normal "captain yelling at a cop on the edge" thing that has been seen hundreds of times already.

And then there was a vision coming towards me. It was Tawny Cypress (you may know her as Simone Deveraux on Heroes). She plays another officer on the force, Ginger “Love Tap” LeBeau. Clearly we all need to know what this means; is it a car thing or something else? Sadly I cannot tell you because she had to head on inside to the party.

But there was no time to worry about that, because there were still other folks on my list to talk to (and one can be forgiven when a child is pulling one inside). Plus, Cole Hauser, one of the two stars of the show, was going to be with me shortly. When he did make it over to me, I asked about his character's (Trevor Cobb) "nefarious background." This inevitably led to a discussion as to the meaning of "nefarious" and if it was in fact a word. I think I can happily say that Hauser likes "nefarious" and that if you see the word popping up in his speech in the future, you know where it came from. But is Cobb who he says he is? What is this Army Ranger experience? It seems only time will tell.

And lastly, there was Anthony Anderson, who plays Marlin Boulet, and is the other lead. Anderson has been in over 20 films on the big screen, and more than a few television shows. So, why is Anderson doing this show? Because he wants to "be able to shine on a light on a situation right here in New Orleans" that has all but been "forgotten in the news and in the media."

Is K-Ville that story of hope? Will the light that K-Ville shines on New Orleans last? And what about that lone, intrepid reporter on the edge of the red carpet? There is a lot of speculation on all those areas, and during my trip down to Louisiana I was able to sit with Jonathan Lisco, the creator and executive producer of the show and ask some questions. He was not able to tell me about the intrepid reporter, but he did have a lot of other answers. But, that is an article for another day.

Stay tuned, because there will be more from Blogcritics Magazine about K-Ville in the near future.

About Josh Lasser

Josh has deftly segued from a life of being pre-med to film school to television production to writing about the media in general. And by 'deftly' he means with agonizing second thoughts and the formation of an ulcer.

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