I just watched the pilot ...
Jonathan Tucker and Olivia Wilde, The Black Donnellys
Question: I just watched the pilot episode of
The Black Donnellys, and I have mixed feelings about this new drama. Overall, I liked it, and I am willing to give the show a chance. I love family crime shows like this, but it seems like a kiddie version Showtime's
Brotherhood. I feel like the characters are way too young and innocent-looking to be such bad "Irish thugs," out for revenge with a do-or-die mentality. All the main characters have these baby faces that just don't match their attitudes and lifestyles. The one huge character that I feel is missing is the matriarch. Where is she? There is no way that an Irish family of four boys doesn't have a strong, overbearing mother in the picture. Maybe the mother will be introduced later, but I felt she needed to be introduced in the pilot. I understand that a show like this has to be a little watered down because it is on NBC, but I just don't think the premise is that believable with the actors they have chosen to play these characters, especially considering the ending of the pilot, which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it yet. Have you had a chance to view it, and if so, what did you think? What do you think its chances are? Do you think it's fair to compare this show to
Brotherhood? — Tiffany J.
Have you reviewed The Black Donnellys yet? We rented it from Netflix to "test drive" the show and turned it off halfway through. The narrative style was confusing, and it introduced too many characters. By the time we turned it off, we had met the Donnellys, the narrator, Jenny, Louie from Downtown, his uncle Sal, some generic Italian goons a and college student named Bonnie. It was so hard for us to keep track of who was who and how they related to each other. By forcing these introductions with the narration rather than letting them naturally interact so the audience could learn about them, it seemed too much. In contrast, Heroes has a large cast, but each character's story has developed, and I don't find it difficult to keep track of any of the characters. I am curious if you had the same reaction. I was excited about the premise of the show, but I am afraid we might have to pass on this one. Should we reconsider?
Answer: This is a first for me, dissecting a show in detail even before its premiere. This may be a case in which NBC's experiment in exposing some of its pilots via Netflix backfires. My official review won't appear until later this week, because NBC at the last minute moved up the premiere of
The Black Donnellys to tonight, a week earlier than scheduled, missing my deadline. (Look for it midweek online and in the magazine.) But let me share my headline: "Mob Drama for Dummies." I'm not saying anyone who likes
The Black Donnellys is a dummy (some of the mail I've received so far from early viewers has been positive, but most has been ambivalent to negative). But the show itself takes such a broad, cartoonish look at clichéd Irish hooligans in Hell's Kitchen (or some such neighborhood) that I can't begin to take it seriously. I screened five episodes and grew more exasperated by the hour. By comparison, for all of its disappointments,
Studio 60 looks like a classic. It's hard to believe
Paul Haggis, who gave us the nuanced and complex
EZ Streets (a fondly remembered commercial dud) is partly responsible for this one.
Now, to address the specific questions. Yes, the casting is weird, as if NBC were attempting a CW version of a crime show. Comparing it to Showtime's Brotherhood is more than fair, and Donnellys comes out a loser, no question. About the mother: In Episode 2, Kate Mulgrew is introduced as the matriarch, and she's as bossy and domineering as you'd expect, given that the show milks every trite characterization imaginable (from the brother who gambles to the limping hophead to the cute ladies' man baby of the family). I figure they hadn't cast the role when they filmed the pilot, or recast it afterward, which is why Mom doesn't show up in the first hour. The absence is very noticeable, as Tiffany says. As for Amy's point about there being too many characters introduced too quickly, that didn't bother me so much. In part because all of the characters are so paper-thin I felt I'd seen them (and what they were doing and saying) all before. And almost always done better.
