The Black Donnellys

The Black Donnellys is a return to form for Paul Haggis, the show's creator and executive producer. The lead characters are four Irish-American brothers in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Police, unions, and mob families interact in complex ways that recalls Haggis' short-lived television masterpiece EZ Streets. In The Black Donnellys, Haggis creates an engaging story of family loyalty, desperation, sacrifice and redemption. The Donnellys' world is not as dark and desperate as the unnamed rust belt city of EZ Streets, but the Donnellys are nonetheless bound by history to a path filled with conflict and drama. I found the story believable and engaging. The twists of the story reinforced the character development. Few shows manage such deft intertwining of plot and character. Most must either be characterized as plot-driven or character-driven. The Black Donnellys uses both artistic barrels, with stunning accuracy.

Based on the series Pilot, The Black Donnellys is highly recommended. NBC has a full order of 13 episodes. (The pilot is available through Netflix before the television premier scheduled for March 5, 2007 @ 10:00 PM Eastern, 9:00 PM Central.)

This show needs a reboot ASAP I miss this show so much. Come on amazon, netflix and hulu?!?!?!?!

I eagerly looked forward to the second show, but was somewhat disappointed. It was extremely grisly with very little story line and not the humor that The Sopranos use to get around abject violent acts. I still will give it more time, however, because I liked the premise of the show, it's much more like a cable show than not. I'm sick of most network broadcasts and "reality TV". This series shows promise so I was somewhat taken a back by the gore and the gruesomeness of the body disposal--YIKES!!! There are others who have problems with the fact that they don't use gratuitous foul language on the show as tough guys like these brothers would use in real life, but I never even noticed the 'F' bomb missing from their discourse. The missing profanity never spoiled the gritty reality of the show for me. In fact, movies like the Departed really use too much of it, not that it bothers me, but it can grate on one's "last nerve" after a while hearing it over and over again.

I'll be back next week to check it out.

Going just by the pilot - excellent! I thought the story'd be off to a bit of a slow, boring start, but it took off like a flare, from the first few shots, never flagging, never letting up. The grittiness of the look, the timing, the pace, the story line, the dialogue -- terrific, just what you'd expect from people who made "Crash." They didn't disappoint. The acting is also very good, except Keith Nobbs, who plays Joey Ice Cream: entirely too much of a clichéd motor-mouthed overacting little weasel. If he's going to continue providing the narration, it can be a detriment to the overall quality, as it was in the pilot, hence I gave it only 9 stars out of 10.

If there is something Paul Haggis is good at, it's storytelling.

The pilot was as captivating as a pilot can hope to be. The story begins to come together after the first ten minutes of an 'introduction' and it's an entertaining ride with thought behind it.

This casting is good, the characters have plenty of depth to play with and the writing is, well, Paul Haggis.

There's a lot of potential and I hope we see a great run from the Black Donnellys. It would be a pity if this goes the Arrested Development route.

Though, this is a very different show.