Network: Fox; Genre: Crime Drama; Content Rating: TV-14 (some fierce violence and adult content); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);
Seasons Reviewed: Series (1 season)
In the immediate aftermath of the 2006 Hurricane Katrina disaster, the city of New Orleans begins to rebuild. Marlin Boulet (Anthony Anderson) plays a cop who stayed behind rescuing citizens off roofs while his partner wigged out and fled the city. Boulet is assigned a new partner, Cobbs (Cole Houser), who has a secret of his own - he survived the storm by drowning his roommate, hoping the water wouldn't rise past the ceiling of his prison cell.
At it's best ("Ride Along", "Melissa", "AKA"), the show sticks up for the city's rich culture and heritage, making the case that "Nawlins" is widely misunderstood by the east and west coast dwelling pundits who proclaim it "a welfare state that is never coming back" (as a reporter voices in "Ride Along"). Anderson sells a love for the city, and Houser sells a respect for Boulet's love for the city. The title itself is a reference from inside New Orleans showcasing the city's subversive sense of humor.
At it's worst, many in the short series run, the show simply appears to use the current event climate of New Orleans as a backdrop gimmick to run several routine crime stories through. Mississippi, Alabama and Florida post-Katrina don't make nearly as interesting a setting, I suppose. Even when extolling the character of New Orleans we only get to see the city as 2nd unit stock footage passing by a car window or a narrow shot of the front of a house. This works against the show. I want to feel like I'm there. Right in the middle of it. Immersed in the middle of a war between reconstructionists like Boulet and thugs and drug dealers who take this opportunity to drag New Orleans back into the wild west.
There is a lot of potential here, that "K-Ville" doesn't realize. "Rescue Me" started as a post-9/11 look at firefighters in New York and while it always holds to that truth it has also fleshed itself out into a rich, humorous universe of it's own. "K-Ville", on Fox is handcuffed to a cop drama template. It's got a few splintery shoot-outs and a few dry humorous smirks but is largely humorless, thrill-free and uninspired in it's shallow, predictable stories. The characters have yet to flesh out although it appears "K-Ville" was really working at them. In Too bad because the show is pretty well made. There is an intensity to some of the action, a shaky camera technique and a willingness to blow things up and shoot-up and rip apart sets that gives the show a movie quality. "24" on a smaller budget.
You can become attached to any show you watch at length. I really wanted to like "K-Ville", mostly for the strong, likable lead performance from Anthony Anderson. Anderson came into his dramatic own with his startling turn on "The Shield" and this is further good work from an actor who could easily become great. Vic Mackey would be pleased with Boulet. But "K-Ville" as a whole doesn't rise up to it's potential and it's made up of elements that might seem different and freshly brutal for those only christened by network TV, but will come off a little been-there-done-that from those who have experienced FX's aforementioned cop thriller.
* * / 4
