TV review: K-ville

Since this blog (or at least some incarnation of this blog) largely made its national name during Hurricane Katrina, I thought it might be appropriate to provide my thoughts on the new series on Fox this fall, K-ville.

As you might be able to gather, K-ville is shorthand for Katrinaville, not an affectionate nickname for Knoxville.  The show is set in current day, two years post-Katrina New Orleans.

On the surface, it seems to be your garden-variety cops vs. bad guys drama, focusing primarily on officer Martin Boulet (Anthony Anderson).  Officer Boulet is a resident of the Ninth Ward, where he is the gung-ho leader of the "Let's Rebuild It" movement.  Unfortunately for him, he seems to be the only one interested.

During Katrina, his partner punked out on him in the middle of crisis, and he's been twisted because of that, too.  I'm shocked, really.  A cop, with a lot of stress and problems, in a TV series.  How novel.

His new partner Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser) is an ex-military man from Cincinnati.  Needless to say, this raises red flags with Boulet.  Talk about adding coals to a fire.  Give a man with trust issues someone new that he has to trust and let's see what happens.

The initial story in the pilot is one that isn't exactly new, either.  Evil corporate types trying to keep the Ninth Ward from actually being built back, so they can profit from the cheap prices on the dirt.

From a cinematographic perspective, the show looks a lot like Blackhawk Down or Syriana, with a gritty, grainy quality that makes it truly seem like a battlefield.  The scenes of NOLA in the show are clearly focused on the destruction from Katrina that remains uncleared.   

There are a number of opportunities to take jabs at FEMA et al., and in that way it ham-handedly makes its political statement.  This, like so much of K-ville, seems very forced and contrived.  I know it's a work of fiction, but it just tries too damn hard to get to where it's going for my taste.

Lots of shoot-em-up scenes, interspersed with post-Katrina wreckage, capped off with the personal trials of Boulet, pretty much takes the whole hour.  It could be an OK cop drama, but I don't know that it's going to hang around long enough to evolve into something really good.

Overall, it's something like a C+ at best. 

Comments

[omar]

you want to watch a good cop show. The Wire
HBO

[gahrie]

When I want to watch a good cop series, I haul out my DVDs of Hill Street Blues.....

[BK]

Well, they shouldn't have any trouble finding locations to shoot. I was in NOLA in April, and outside of the Quarter there were still plenty of boarded up neighborhoods and abandoned areas.

[David Ross]

This is exactly what I find so hilarious about American media. Corruption, neglect, ignorance, a dependency culture, and a disproportionate criminal class conspired to make New Orleans what it is today. But when Hollywood gets in on it, the villain becomes - EvilCorpAmerica.