So, here it is, the first new show of the new season, from the Fox Network. This new crime series is as tried and true a concept as the television landscape has ever seen. A buddy cop show. How far back does this premise go? "K-ville", apparently a nickname for the New Orleans after Katrina, uses the city, and its continued efforts to recover from that awful hurricane as the backdrop for this crime drama featuring Ninth Ward native Marlin Boulet (Anthony Anderson), and recently discharged soldier having served in Afghanistan and new guy on the force Trevor Kobb (Cole Hauser).
Partnered for the first time since his previous partner, Charlie, took a walk at the height of the rescue efforts, Marlin's a little bit rogue. Trevor arrives with all the fanfare of bottle opening, and the two start rubbing the rough edges against one another.
The key to these buddy cop shows, what makes them work, is the chemistry between the two leads. Here, admittedly only the pilot (but if you can't establish it then, you've waited to long) there's next to none. Anderson, a gifted comedic actor, plays this one bone straight. He's clearly seen too much devastation to have a sense of humor anymore, and plays it like his character is the only person in New Orleans who is taking rebuilding seriously. Hauser, on the other hand, doesn't say or do much of anything, and the big "reveal" about his character's not so boy-scout past seems like a last ditch attempt to give the character depth.
"K-ville" could have done for police dramas what "Rescue Me" did for fire and rescue dramas. Dropping us into a post catastrophe, PTSD infected world was compelling and thought provoking when Denis Leary did it with NYC Firefighters post 9/11. Leary and his co-producers knew that the show had to be funny sometimes, to counteract the maudlin. There's nothing but a lot of maudlin in K-ville. Here, the concept just feels like another gimmick, added onto a gimmick and draped with a cliché.
The throwaway plot of the pilot is equally concerning, as the mystery is far-fetched, shallowly conceived, and poorly executed. The only real upside to this show seems to be that each episode will be self sustaining, which means, if it wants to, and it should want to, it can re-invent itself over the next couple of episodes, and maybe start to get it right. Unfortunately, I've already decided not to tune in again.
"K-ville" appears Mondays on the Fox Network.
Partnered for the first time since his previous partner, Charlie, took a walk at the height of the rescue efforts, Marlin's a little bit rogue. Trevor arrives with all the fanfare of bottle opening, and the two start rubbing the rough edges against one another.
The key to these buddy cop shows, what makes them work, is the chemistry between the two leads. Here, admittedly only the pilot (but if you can't establish it then, you've waited to long) there's next to none. Anderson, a gifted comedic actor, plays this one bone straight. He's clearly seen too much devastation to have a sense of humor anymore, and plays it like his character is the only person in New Orleans who is taking rebuilding seriously. Hauser, on the other hand, doesn't say or do much of anything, and the big "reveal" about his character's not so boy-scout past seems like a last ditch attempt to give the character depth.
"K-ville" could have done for police dramas what "Rescue Me" did for fire and rescue dramas. Dropping us into a post catastrophe, PTSD infected world was compelling and thought provoking when Denis Leary did it with NYC Firefighters post 9/11. Leary and his co-producers knew that the show had to be funny sometimes, to counteract the maudlin. There's nothing but a lot of maudlin in K-ville. Here, the concept just feels like another gimmick, added onto a gimmick and draped with a cliché.
The throwaway plot of the pilot is equally concerning, as the mystery is far-fetched, shallowly conceived, and poorly executed. The only real upside to this show seems to be that each episode will be self sustaining, which means, if it wants to, and it should want to, it can re-invent itself over the next couple of episodes, and maybe start to get it right. Unfortunately, I've already decided not to tune in again.
"K-ville" appears Mondays on the Fox Network.