I've seriously watched the screener of this pilot six times. It's fantastic. The only thing that disappoints me about the final product is the changed music. Arcade Fire's Rebellion Lies has been replaced with something that makes Tommy's descent into crime far less haunting. It's a shame, but it's still a damn fine pilot.
Watch it on Yahoo now.
http://tv.yahoo.com/the-black-donnellys/show/38704;_ylt=Avdb3g4h37YxkOzbT8hPA7_ko9EF
And don't forget: it premieres Monday, February 26 on NBC
7 comments:
Now, see...this is where things get weird.
I didn't say anything before when you indirectly slammed Heroes. I mean, I thought the pilot was nothing special and then episode two changed my mind, and here I am fifteen episodes later still enjoying the (refreshingly answer-filled) ride.
But here you are, extolling the virtues of a show about a young Irish mob as told by Paul "Subtlety" Haggis.
I suppose I'll watch the pilot at some point, because I trust your opinion...but I won't be happy about it.
Yuck, I feel dirty just THINKING about sitting through another Haggis-fest.
I have to admit, I don't think I gave Heroes a fair shot. When the DVDs come out, I'll have to remedy that.
In the meantime, believe me when I say: It's nothing like Crash, which I actually enjoyed (possibly because I watched it as part of a Q&A and Haggis said it was mostly a metaphor, which I accept).
Plus, anything's a step up from Studio 60, right?
Hmmm. Here's the problem: While some of the stuff in here actually worked and on the sliding scale of diminished expectations it benefits by being better than anyone would really expect from something Haggis has put his canned dialogue an pandering sentiments all over, I simply cannot shake the feeling that I have seen this -- ALL of this -- before. However competently the pieces of what constitutes a good pilot have been checked off the list, slapped onto the conveyor belt, and afixed to one another by the machine, it doesn't alter the reality that pretty much everything I just witnessed was dilutted bits and sanitized pieces from appreciably better works: Boondock Saints, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Mystic River, Carlito's Way, The Brothers McMullen, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, Lock Stock, Rounders, Boyz in the Hood, High Incident, The Shield, (I could go on).
We get the stock brother/family archetypes: Tommy, the intelligent one, with some hope of leaving his working class roots. (He draws, so we know deep down he's reflective and sensitive.) Jimmey, the self destructive hot head with dramatically convenient remorse (who I enjoyed more when Edward Norten played the a more interesting version of the exact same character in Rounders) who's self destructive tendencies endanger his friends/family (who, of course, dependably will work to save him, because, hey, we're all still family). We get Kevin, the under developed loyal the dim bulb schemer, comic relief. And, because every group that has a sincere, sensitive, responsible character, who has trouble finding the right girl needs a foil, we get Sean, the "attractive one" (despite them all being young and attractive) who's care free and enjoys devil-may-care success with the ladies. And they all interact in predictable and unsurprising ways -- the same ways you've seen the four archetypes interact before.
They got away with a surprising amount of (implied and displayed) violence, but much like Crash at times the "world" seemed conveniently Faux-Gritty. Cartoon, rom com moments like Sean instantly making out with Tommy's photographer student friend... in a running convertible... in the middle of the street... in the middle of the day... and those painful "hardy har" lines like "I just spent the night with a woman who wouldn't stop" (his grandma, get it? she's a pest! -- like all elderly women! Aren't they useless? Unlike old men, who become powerful mobsters who control whole neighborhoods) strain cerdibility. Also, some of little holes... Jenny wonders when she'll get to see one of Tommy's pictures... what? In 20 years he's never shown her ONE of them? Tommy quite joy riding when He was, what, 12 and he crushe Jimmy's leg, but he's also got all this "driving skill" How much experience could he have possibly garnered?
This isn't to say that there weren't moments I enjoyed. The scene in the hospital corridor, next to the coke machine was handled subtly and I like the choice of staying with the single long shot. But forever moment handled deftly there was another that was completly predictable and daft. "You are not your brother!" Olivia Wilde must laughably exclaim to Tommy, hammering that one home for us. When Jimmy's dangerous activities put his bothers in jeapordy, which brother will inevitably get laid up in the hospital after absorbing the consequences? And then, when Jimmy's life is threatened, which brother will cross over into dark territory to defend his family?
I enjoy the Tommy/Jenny relationship, but did they have to blow their entire tension load in the pilot, with her decleration of love? The attraction was OBVIOUSLY communicated well before that, and I was hoping to enjoy watching that develop. Instead she just turned all the cards over.
Also, is the suspiciously an impossibly omniscient narration style borrowed from Casino/Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang/Goodfellas/The Usual Suspects going to be employed in every episode here after or was that just a lazy and easy exposition device? Although there's no believeable way our narrator could have had ALL the information he did, it's device did add a certain, albeit, borrowed flavor the preceedinds that woul have been markedly more standard without it.
Over all, I'd give it a C+. Many of the plot points seemed a little cliched/inevitable, though I had only just gotten around to wondering if Tommy had been driving the car that hurt Jimmy when they revealed it -- so that was nicely done and added a palpable extra guilt/motivation for Tommy to save his brother. It's relatively well acted and filmed and has a few interesting moments, but isn't as gritty as it thinks it is, and seems cobbled together from pieces of better films. The Pilot did set up the possibilty of altering some of the stock archetypes it dealt in -- will Sean be disfigured? -- so I'll continue to give it a shot.
I agree that it's completely unrealistic for Tommy to have never shown Jenny a drawing. And I don't get what's up with her dead husband, but I'm too smitten with the show to let is bother me.
And while everyone does fit into archetypes, I'm hoping that we'll see them grow beyond those (Jimmy getting sober and Kevin's face being smashed in should be pretty interesting).
As for the omniscient narration, it works because Joey Ice Cream is a totally unreliable narrator. He embellishes and gets facts and dates wrong so everything he says may or may not be true. Which I dig. Also, the bit with his grandma was funnier in the original version, which used the music of Rob Thomas and Ricky Martin to highlight the year he was lying about.
I’m anxious to see the second episode and to find out what you guys think of it.
Patron Saint, for the longest time I have worshipped at your altar and felt that we were separated at birth. I felt your tastes were spot on and that rarely have I met someone who loved the television as much as I did. Then you posted this. Perhaps I need to give it a better shot than the pilot screener I watched last May, and my very first awesome boss in this industry works on the show so I guess I'll watch so she finally gets a show that doesn't get canned after 6+pilot or 12+pilot, but that doesn't mean I'll actually enjoy this show. Cameo on Entourage be damned, Haggis...well, words fail me. Although I'm not sure how long they can keep Joey Ice Cream as a narrator before it falls into "perilous V.O. territory" (see "Housewives, Desperate" or "Heroes" for examples of superfluous V.O.)
Q
Oh, Q. It had to happen someday. I assumed our difference in opinion would be over Degrassi, that's what gets most people...
Didn't Haggis write for Golden Girls? Who doesn't like the Golden Girls? And Flags of Our Fathers was good. Anyone? Anyone? I feel so lonely...
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? You know what, I used to LOVE Degrassi when it was on the local PBS stations in the 80's, and the bits I've seen of Degrassi on the N, I have greatly enjoyed. Perhaps I should officially add it to the TiVo Season Pass List.
I think Haggis did write for Golden Girls, as did Marc Cherry. Who knew Golden Girls would teach the writers of the next generation the use of extraneous V.O.? Maybe they both wrote for the season we shall not name, with Blanche and Rose and Sophia and Don Cheadle running that hotel. I can believe that.
I will give the the Black Donnelly's the benefit of the doubt and watch a few more eps past the pilot - after all, pilots are a pretty awful indicator of where a show will go or what it will become. Have heart, Patron Saint. All is not lost yet!
Q
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