K-Ville on Fox

[JeremyEritrea]

Pretty good show.

Did anyone else catch this tonight?

[Chicago1871]

I can't justify two hours in front of the television on Monday night (Prison Break gets the first) just yet, but this show intrigues me. I like both of the actors, but am waiting to hear some reviews before I add yet another show to the DVR schedule.

[Foosinho]

The good: the setting is rich, with lots of good story opportunities. I like both leads.

The bad: the action editing drove me nuts. From 2nd story study to emptying magazines on the porch to being in the car 3 lengths back (still emptying magazines). C'mon. The action bits were really really disappointing.

As of right now, I'm still on the fence. I'll give it a few episodes to mature, but I've got plenty of other stuff to watch.

[Foosinho]

This is a pretty accurate review, IMO.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/09/16/105719.php

[TheSlipperyOne]

This is a pretty accurate review, IMO.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/09/16/105719.php

That's pretty much what most reviews I've read sound like.

I also read that this show wasn't conceived by an actual TV producer but the head of Fox just told a TV producer to set a cop show in New Orleans.

We already have and have had plenty run of the mill cop shows on TV. Just changing the location isn't going to get me to watch unless they have real characters, ideas and plots.

[Foosinho]

We already have and have had plenty run of the mill cop shows on TV. Just changing the location isn't going to get me to watch unless they have real characters, ideas and plots.

The show is well positioned to deliver on that. It is mostly a question of whether or not the writing and editing can live up to the potential.

[JeremyEritrea]

I thought the ending sucked. The partner is a prisoner who escaped during Katrina who became a cop because all his records were lost? Yeah, right.

I'll give it one or two more tries, but more than likely I'm done with this.

[Foosinho]

Episode 2 was much better than episode one, IMO.

[Atouk]

The Times-Picayune's Chris Rose on K-Ville:

'K-Ville' gets it (http://www.nola.com/rose/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1190095792259130.xml&coll=1&thispage=1)

It provoked me, and truthfully, very few shows can do that. Largely, I am an elitist who thinks TV is mostly stupid and lacks the ability to reach the emotional core. "K-Ville" reached mine.

For now. My general disdain for prime-time TV is such that I'm resigned to the inevitability that in episode two or three or somewhere along the line, "K-Ville" will descend into ignominy and become a wincing parody of our crime and politics.

Maybe it will turn out like the Saints: What I thought I saw at first is not really what's there.

I don't know. Perhaps I've lost perspective. I admit to falling into that category of person that makes most of the rest of this country uncomfortable: I'm not over it.

But I know that I like this character Marlin, the cop, because he is us, writ large for TV: a simple, troubled man in a morally ambiguous world that, on its surface, seems to hold so little promise, just trying to get by, sustained by and helping to sustain a people who hold together and refuse to surrender.

I know the feeling. I just wonder if anyone else in America cares.

He followed that up with this -- An open letter to the producers of 'K-Ville' (http://www.nola.com/rose/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1190528216310280.xml&coll=1&thispage=1).
We liked your noble attempt at a post-Katrina New Orleans cop show. I say "we" because I wrote a story about it on Tuesday, the day after your prime-time premiere on Fox, and the responses I got from scores of readers ran about 9-to-1 in support of the actors, their characters and the down-but-not-out message you presented.

It was the formulaic plot that left the senses unfulfilled. And we like our senses filled around here.

<snip>

And as my colleague Dave Walker expertly articulated last week, what you've got here are two different TV shows. And one of them really sucks.

I'm referring to the cop drama. Car chases and Uzi-toting mercenaries are so, well . . . so '80s.

Two years after The Thing, this town is many things. "Retro" is not one of them.

There aren't many ways for new shows to distinguish themselves from the cacophony of prime-time crime dramas that litter the airwaves. But you have a very real chance here.

So, please, dig deeper. If you must give us violence -- and we realize you must -- then give us the real thing, the real story, the real streets, not this watered-down James Bond bunk.

Ditch the wild-scheme plotlines. Don't be afraid to delve into the discomfiting reality that is life in the off-camera "K-Ville." Do race. Do politics. Press buttons. Pose difficult questions that provoke even more difficult answers.

Make us uncomfortable. Make America uncomfortable. Make us think.


Let me just add, I heartily recommend that you go to the Times-Pic site and read Chris Rose regularly.

And, if you want a great collection of his post-Katrina work, pick up 1 Dead in Attic (http://www.amazon.com/1-Dead-Attic-After-Katrina/dp/1416552987/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1888149-2377513?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191019403&sr=8-1), which is now back in print.

[Foosinho]

I just want to be on record as completely in agreement with Chris Rose, in his assessment of the show, it's characters, it's potential... and my desire for it to be truthful and distressing to Americans.

[Atouk]

More Chris Rose on K-Ville... and "Gumbo Parties." :D

http://www.nola.com/rose/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/119173808234850.xml&coll=1

The new fall television season has divided residents of the region into two categories: Those who watch "K-Ville" and those who do not.

Of those who watch "K-Ville," there are also two distinct categories: those who view it with passing interest and discuss it at work the next morning. And those who have embraced it as part of their lifestyle, something more -- much more -- than just passive entertainment.

And if you fall into the latter group, it all comes down to two words: Gumbo Party!

[article continues]
...and a nice bit about the plots from the article, "'I'm not exactly sure what the plot is here,' Tom Dyer said. 'But I think that Fidel Castro doesn't want people returning to Eastover so he hired a prostitute to kill a congressman.'"

[Atouk]

I've been recording them and finally got up the nerve to watch the first episode. They certainly drop you right in it on the emotional front. We quite enjoyed the first one and will start watching the rest.

[Foosinho]

IMO, the first was without a doubt the worst. This show has been decent. I don't think it's reached it's full potential, but I'm not a cop show kind of guy, and I like this one.