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Test Pilot: K-Ville

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | July 3, 2007 | +

K-Ville_pilotgroup2.jpg
FOX

Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots may be rewritten, recast and reshot before airing, and end up much better or worse. But, premature opinions are why God invented the Internet, so let’s get on with…

The Show: K-Ville, Fox

The Premise: Anthony Anderson (The Shield) is New Orleans cop Marlin Boulet, from the flood-devastated Ninth Ward, who doggedly decided to stay in the city after Katrina (hence the K). Two years later, he’s trying to keep order in a decimated city with a decimated police force, and trying to persuade his wife–who’s lit off to Atlanta with their young daughter–to return and stick things out. He finds himself paired with a new partner (Cole Hauser), whose origins and motives Boulet is suspicious of.

First Impressions: An intriguing, ambitious but sometimes weirdly jarring mix of realistic drama and police procedural. The pilot is half about the law-enforcement, personal and social aftereffects of Katrina, and the racial overtones of the reconstruction, or lack thereof. (There are also a few chilling flashbacks to the floods, and how some people survived and didn’t.) That part looks like a fascinating show. The other half, though, is a more or less standard cop procedural, which seems all the more rushed and unconvincing for being compressed. In the first episode, Boulet solves–through little more than a car chase and computer search–a murder and massive real-estate conspiracy that could have, and maybe should have, been a running plot for the whole season. I’m sure this is the fallout of last fall season–there had to be several “NO MORE SERIALS!” memos written after The Nine, Kidnapped and Vanished–but I wonder if this show might have better been done on FX, where that wouldn’t have been an issue. As it is, it’s like The Wire, if The Wire solved a case in 20 minutes each episode. (Which is to say, not The Wire.)

But Will I Watch Again? Probably–to see if the good cop drama beats the bad cop drama.

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  • Tom Shaw

    Thanks for hitting the Fox pile for us.

    So how is Anderson in this? Fine in the drama sections and merely acceptable in the generic action bits?

    Although you mention that this should have stayed on the FX side of the fence, I would point out that their similar Thief (although they focused on the supply side of crime) did not find a warm reception.

  • James Poniewozik

    Anderson’s very good as usual–there are a few too-overwrought scenes that I blame on the script. His character is supposed to be stressed and a bit unbalanced and he pulls that off nicely.

    I hear you on Thief, but that show–while I think it was well-acted and a little underrated–was also just a little turgid; I don’t think the setting per se was a problem. (Plus, they really only worked in the setting after the fact, because of the simple chronology of production.) Anyway, the general point being, I’d have loved to see this on a network LIKE FX, that was not shy of making serials.

  • Nicole

    I really didn’t think that Anderson would be good in a dramatic role either but he really came through. He portrays, very accurately, a cop with a tough exterior but a warm heart. He has compassion for the people around him, which is rare in most of the police/crime shows that I have seen recently. I hope people give this one a chance, I think it really has potential.

  • http://xxx 7thwardcreole

    I’m from New Orleans and don’t believe that the pilot depicted my city accurately. First of all, the accents are all off. Secondly, not every person in New Orleans has a French last name. Thirdly – we do not have gumbo parties. We eat lots of gumbo and attend second lines. Yes there are many cypress trees in New Orleans. But the number of oaks destroyed by hurricane Katrina, in the metropolitan area, far outweighs the number of cypress trees. I”m curious to know whether people who are actually from New Orleans have any input regarding the script. If so, I’d be quite surprised if that person did not have a negative reaction to the whole gumbo party bit. I don’t have any complaints about the acting. I think that the acting was good. However, the story line could have been better.

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