Driver

I came across this six-part mini-series on a set of DVDs that my public library just added. On the surface it has several good things going for it. First I love New Orleans, I have been there many times, my wife grew up there, I used to live in a community just a few miles west of New Orleans. It is filmed there, I recognize the locations.

Plus I am big fans of two of the actors, the rest I don't know. Giancarlo Esposito was wonderful as Gus Fring in "Breaking Bad" which owes a lot of its popularity to his role. Here he plays the lead character, a driver, named 'Gray' Parish. The other is Skeet Ulrich as Colin.

The premise is thin, Gray and his wife discuss their lack of finances and fear they will lose their New Orleans home. She is suggesting they look at a less expensive, 2000-sq-ft home in Covington, just across the lake north of New Orleans. So he decides to do a driving job for some South African gangsters. There is a short chase scene on foot and they encounter a parade, an all too common cliche' for New Orleans locations.

After one episode I don't know how much more I will continue with. While the locations and cinematography are bonuses, the script and action don't have much subtlety. The story doesn't flow very well and the script is plain vanilla. With so many competing choices I don't know if I will spend the rest of the time to watch it all.

I will update my review if I do.

Update: I watched the second episode then gave up. Nothing but a bunch of bad people doing bad things and frankly not very interesting bad things. So I quit.

Decent show but argh my God the shona accents were super hard to go through! Thats my only gripe witht his show, it was absolutely shameful how bad the accents were. Surely theres good zimbabwean actors they could have given a shot. I only watched this coz im a HUGE Giancarlo Esposito fan and it wasnt too bad at all, definitely passed the time between my regular shows i watch but couldnt watch this all in one go like i watched Kaleidoscope! I hope Hollywood starts actually researching languages and accents to make sure they cast the right actors for these roles because i had a serious issue with the accents im sorry.

It felt like we were dropped into the middle of a season instead of the start of a brand new show. There's zero character development. You just have to figure it all out on the fly. We have no idea why Parish is who he is or why the bad guys are even the bad guys. Then there's Parish's family. These are all complicated characters but we get zero backstory. They just jump into the middle of things. And with that they give us only six episodes?

They also seemingly did things on as cheap of a production budget as possible. Some scenes it sounds like they were filming in a telephone booth.

This show might get a season 2 due to Esposito's popularity. Otherwise surely this would get canceled.

Well, what can I say? I watched all six episodes back-to-back and was engrossed throughout. The casting was solid, with interesting characters. It had elements reminiscent of 'Ozark', 'Queen of the South', 'Banshee', and 'Nobody'. Worth a binge-watch if you're into crime drama thrillers. Fast-paced and straight into the narrative.

If you're a film junkie like myself then you'll appreciate the time and effort that Danny Brocklehurst, Sunu Gonera, Theo Travers and everyone else put in to make this happen.

I enjoyed it. Not my place to say where it could have been improved. It is what it is.

Thank you.

I am really trying to like this show, it's just trite and cliche so far. AMC and Giancarlo Esposito should be an instant hit with originality but this is not the case. Another mob related program but taking place in New Orleans. The location is different but the story is not. Nothing new or dynamic here. I'd recommend a pass as I doubt it's renewed for a season 2. Perhaps the writing could improve but it might be too late. Rewatch Boardwalk Empire or the sopranos. I'm three episodes in and am finding it difficult to not be bored. Maybe the season finale can turn things around but I won't hold my breath.