Watching KVille

Yep, it’s true. Anthony “Marlin Boulet” Anderson has moved on to greener and (currently slightly) higher-rated pastures, joining NBC’s long-long-long-running drama, “Law & Order.”

Photo comes from the NY Post, as does this blurb.

“He’s a former IAB [internal affairs] officer who didn’t sign up for that job - they recruited him right out of the academy and told him he could become a homicide detective in two years,” Anderson told The Post.

“It’s what he really wants to do,” Anderson said. “Bernard feels he can really make a difference as a homicide detective.”

Bernard is replacing Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), who’s leaving the show. Bernard’s first appearance on “L&O” will overlap with Green’s final appearance, scheduled to air April 23 on NBC. Bernard will be paired with Det. Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto), who’s also new to the “L&O” family.

“He’s not a hard-ass,” Anderson says of Bernard.

“He’s a fair guy trying to find his way in a new station house - and trying to get away from the stench of the ‘rat squad’ of internal affairs.”

Don’t bother checking Anthony’s website for any information, as it looks as though it has not been updated in quite some time. K-Ville is not even listed in the filmography.

That’s an odd word, isn’t it? Filmography.

One, I think this is a good move for Anderson, as FOX is notoriously bad at supporting shows that don’t rake in the benjamins. If you ain’t American Idol, your job is not safe at FOX. And working on Law & Order carries a certain loyal audience that tunes in now matter what, and L&O goes into a profitable syndication outlet that means that in a few years, maybe one or two depending on how fast the current season goes into re-runs, Anderson will be raking in the residuals.

However, L&O is getting very long in the tooth, if you know what I mean. There are rumours that NBC may end up giving it the boot, which I doubt, as L&O has spawned so many time-slot fillers for NBC, and I would think that NBC would not want to piss off Dick Wolf. Wolf will more likely be the one to pull the plug.

I popped by the Law & Order forum on the NBC website, and it seems that there are mixed feelings about Anderson joining the cast. I think that Anderson is a surprisingly good actor with tremendous range (The Shield providing a good example of this), so it is not like he will ruin the show, which personally I cannot watch anymore due to having a tv writing teacher that had worked on L&O back in the day and she ruined the show for me, thank you very much. L&O has had a venerable cast over the years, (Jerry Orbach is King! May he rest in peace.) so if anything Anderson is joining a great cast for the most part.

Anthony Anderson, Law & Order, L&O, NBC, K-Ville, FOX, American Idol, Dick Wolf, Jerry Orbach

So official word from the Writers Guild of America is that WGA members have all day Tuesday, February 12 to vote on the proposed deal to end the three-month long strike. However, as the WGA announcement mentions, the vote is only to immediately end the strike pending ratification of the new deal between the Writers Guild and the studios OR wait until the deal is ratified and then end the strike.

So my question is, let’s say they do indeed vote to end the strike, but the deal is then not ratified. Would the writers re-strike?

The LA Times reported today that the ratification process could take up to twelve days. Can the writing staff of K-Ville crank out a script in twelve days? And if so, what is the point of giving me only one more new episode, when there are so many plotlines to wrap up? The mole in the department? Cobb’s secret affair? Boulet’s etouffe recipe?

Still, the bigger question of whether K-Ville will return or not remains foremost on my mind. Well, ok, I do have other things going on in my life, but I mean foremost when it concerns this blog, right?

But really, look at the evidence. K-Ville was not winning the ratings race on Monday night by any stretch, and FOX has since replaced K-Ville in its time slot with Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. This worries me, but also gets me thinking of a better time for FOX to air K-Ville. I am thinking Tuesday after American Idol, except I believe that is House’s time slot. Wednesday then, maybe? I honestly have no idea what is on FOX Wednesday night now…Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares? Too bad I like the BBC’s version of Kitchen Nightmares a gazillion times better, because it is more about food and less about abject filth (anyone else notice that?). But there I go again, digressing.

I just checked the FOX website’s posted schedule, and it looks like that lie detector show, The Moment of Truth, is now on Wednesday’s at 9pm. American Idol is going to be the two-hour shows for a couple of weeks, I think. I tried watching American Idol for a season or a half, and I just tend to get rather bored with it, so I am not entirely sure how long the two-hour shows continue for.

It may not matter anyway, as who really knows what the genius minds behind FOX programming have in mind for this truncated season. Will K-Ville throw us a couple of episodes before summer, or just try to pick up again next season? I think that putting out a few episodes is the best idea, to renew the public’s memory of K-Ville, before a longer summer break. Not only that, but New Orleans has been in the news lately, and with the juggernaut of Brad Pitt hanging around, doing all sorts of goodness, it might just be a good time to revisit the Big Easy during prime-time.

Writers Strike, WGA, K-Ville, House, Terminator, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, American Idol, FOX, Kitchen Nightmares, BBC, Brad Pitt

Here we go, kiddies. The first new episode of K-Ville for all of you jonesing for more adventures with Boulet and Cobb. This episode is called, yeah, look at the title above.

Please note that this is not proper script format.

Open on a dark night.

Exterior: Cobb’s trailer.

Cobb is walking up to his small trailer, presumably after a long day. His body language shows us that he is tired.

As he approaches the door, a noise comes from inside the trailer. Cobb freezes, and quickly draws his gun. He pauses and listens at the door. He hears nothing else. He storms inside, gun held out in front of him, expecting an ambush.

He looks around the room, and sees…nothing. A crash comes from behind him. He spins around, ready to fire.

Felice, his newly-adopted cat, has just knocked a pan off of the counter that separates the kitchen from the tiny living area. She jumps at him, as she is also startled by the noise. The cat flies past Cobb’s surprised, yet slightly relieved, face. The cat hops up onto the couch, and jumps out an open window.

Cobb, shaking his head, muttering something about “taking in a damn cat” slowly holsters his gun. Looking at the mess the cat has made, he bends down to pick up the pan.

Exterior: We see a dark figure slink away into the darkness.

Start Opening Credits.

Interior: NOPD Temporary Stationhouse

Cobb enters the stationhouse. The camera acts as his eyes, surveying the scene.

We see Love Tap at her desk, and an overweight man in a suit talking to her, as she is taking down some information on a pad of paper.

Boulet is also at his desk. Cobb walks over to Boulet, and says “Thanks again for guilting me into taking that damn cat home.”

Boulet, laughing, says “I just thought that you could use some feminine companionship.”

Cut to: Love Tap’s looks bored as she is listening to this man in a dark suit tell her that he has been receiving death threats. He expects the police to do something. She assures him that they will look into it, however, as he has no specific information, there is not a whole lot that the police can do. She asks him if he has any ideas who would be behind this. He mentions an ex-business partner, but he is a public figure so it could be any nutjob. Love Tap looks over and sees –

The Captain enters the room, and he has a stern look on his face. Boulet and Cobb stop laughing, and wait sheepishly for what they have been expecting. Captain Embry asks them to enter his office.

Cut to: Interior Captain Embry’s Office

Captain launches right into a tirade about a “mole” working in the department. He is convinced that there may be a issue, and it wouldn’t be the first time that the NOPD has had a corrupt cop in its midst.

Cobb stays silent, as Boulet assuages Captain and assures him that street gossip is usually based on another con being around while the cops talk shop, and that is how most information gets out — accidentally, nothing more. Captain is about to argue, but Boulet is adamant. There is not an issue of a mole in the department, and there is no need to bring in Internal Affairs guys to look into what will probably be nothing. Those IA guys are busy enough as it is. Boulet assures Captain that if there is a mole, he will find him. Captain looks doubtful, but sends Boulet and Cobb off with an assignment to look into a burglery at a local dock.

Shortly Later:

Cobb and Boulet are on their way to the docks. Cobb worries that Captain wasn’t convinced. Boulet tells him to not worry, and all they have to do is find the guy first and fast, so no one else has to start digging around.

A call comes over the wire. Boulet and Cobb are instructed to go directly to a private residence. They turn the car around.

Later: Exterior: House

CSI guys are entering the house. Boulet and Cobb walk up to the house, and follow them in. The house is strangely empty, except for a body in the long hallway. The body has a single gunshot into the chest, and there is very little blood on the floor around the body. Cobb starts looking around the house. Boulet puts on some latex gloves, and digs around the pockets of the body. He finds no wallet, but does find a small cache of business cards in an inside pocket of the jacket that the man has on. There are five to ten cards, all with the same name, David Sampson, Importer.

From behind Boulet, Love Tap and Glue Boy enter the house, and walk toward the body. Cobb returns from inspecting the house, and says that it doesn’t seem as though anyone was living there. Boulet tells everyone that there is no identification, but several of the same business card, so he assumes that the cards are the man’s own cards. He mentions the name. Love Tap asks him to repeat.

Boulet says, “David Sampson.” Love Tap says that is the name of the guy that she took a statement from just earlier that day. She tells them that her David Sampson was reporting death threats. Everyone looks at the body.

Commercial.

K-Ville, Boulet, Cobb, Love Tap, Captain Embry, Glue Boy

Just in case any FOX execs happen across this little blog…

1. The Location of New Orleans.

I am sick to death of watching New York shows or Los Angeles shows. New Orleans gives viewers a somewhat unique locale for a drama. Sure, I know that more and more shows are branching out into other US cities, but so many of them are obviously not filmed in those cities. K-Ville is filmed in New Orleans, and that is a wonderful change of pace for those of us that took that first hit of TV as kids and never bothered to get help for our affliction.

I mean, sure, a show like Grey’s Anatomy takes place in Seattle (right?), but you can tell that they did not film there. There is one or two exterior shots of that hospital, and we are to believe that poof, they are in Seattle. But it seems to me the only place they ever go outside of that hospital is to that bar across the street (At least not in the three episodes I have bothered to watch — that show is like a high school soap opera, but then even high school soaps seem more mature). ER did/does the same thing. There is no authenticity in the location, and today’s television viewer is more savvy than that. We want a sense of realism in our cop shows. K-Ville gives us that, in spades.

And one more point, K-Ville provides jobs and maybe a sense of pride for New Orleans, and hey, what US city can use the help more than NOLA?

2. The Dynamic of the Two Leads.

Not to get into a whole discourse on race relations in Television History, but it is refreshing to see an African-American Actor not only carrying the show, but carrying the cop team. In Miami Vice, the show centered heavily on Crockett and Tubbs was there to make it seem progressive. Add Edward James Almos and we have a cross-section of the American population — what, no Asian-Americans or Native-Americans, come on, it was the 1980’s.

Anthony Anderson is entirely watchable. His Marlin Boulet is a complex hero. He doesn’t have those cop superpowers that make him always right and know exactly which lead to follow, and he drinks on the job, and he tricks people into letting him steal evidence, and he bullies people into telling him what he wants. The flaws are as good as his strengths.

Cole Hauser’s Cobb is an equally strong and flawed character. He’s an escaped convict, for pete’s sake. What made him want to be a cop; couldn’t he have done just starting “doing good” by teaching kids or fighting fires? And what makes him such a good cop? Is it that he spent so many years on the wrong side of the law, and he can think like a criminal? Either way, I am digging it, and I want to see his character grow.

3. FOX, It is Not Like You Have Anything Better.

House is on its last season, face it. Bones just cannot be bringing in the viewers. Prison Break is so over, and the choice to put them back in prison, is well, pardon the pun, criminal (and lazy). What else ya got, Fox?

Give K-Ville a chance to grow. Maybe find a better night. Maybe start programming it after that insidious American Idol. Isn’t that how you turned House into a hit?

K-Ville, Fox, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Seatle, Grey’s Anatomy, ER, Miami Vice, Edward James Almos, Anthony Anderson, Cole Hauser, House, Bones, Prison Break, American Idol