"Boomtown"
The Freak (2002)

Director:

Jon Avnet

Writers:

Michelle Ashford (writer)
Graham Yost (creator)

TV Series:

"Boomtown" (2002)

Original Air Date:

3 November 2002 (Season 1, Episode 6)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

After a Russian mobster kills a man in a public restaurant, a little girl comes forward as the "only witness" to the crime...

Plot Keywords:

Critically Acclaimed | Suicide Attempt | Title Based On Song | Interracial Relationship | Abortion

Cast

Donnie Wahlberg	...	Detective Joel Stevens
Neal McDonough	...	David McNorris
Mykelti Williamson	...	Detective Bobby 'Fearless' Smith
Gary Basaraba	...	Officer Ray Hechler
Nina Garbiras	...	Andrea Little
Lana Parrilla	...	Teresa Ortiz
Jason Gedrick	...	Officer Tom Turcotte
Miguel A. Núñez Jr.	...	Freaktown
Annika Peterson	...	Katrina
Ernie Grunwald	...	Charlie Graham
Mark Ivanir	...	Vadim Solonick
Wendy Schaal	...	Darlene Beechem
Raymond O'Connor	...	Albert Beechem
Justin Urich	...	Lyle
Michael Hagerty	...	Wally

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Officer Tom Turcotte's badge and nameplate switch sides on his uniform during the hot tub interview.

I can see clearly now.

I'm with Matt...because the stunts Fearless performs in the fourth act really do tax credulity a time or two, but Michelle Ashford opened his character to view for the first time so powerfully that from this episode onward, he's not just a very competent cop with great stories, he's a mensch. I can't say enough good things about this show, however there is a computer-generated necessity to pad my comment with a few more lines of text in order to accomplish the very thing I was hoping to avoid; running off at the mouth...again. Still too short?!

So while I'm at it, I might as well mention that in Episode 3, The Squeeze, the blood seen pouring from the bullet-holed cooler is inconsistent with the subsequent reveal when the cooler is opened showing no blood, whatsoever. I prefer to blame networks for mindless notes concerning bloodlessness in television, that Freaktown and Fearless were the sole surviving members of F-Troop (a corps within a squad), and that Fearless captured the distant sniper in deleted footage by going on and on about a .22 slug lodged near a vital organ in his butt since childhood. And now back to our regularly scheduled comment.

If you liked this episode of BOOMTOWN, you gotta check out RAINES.