Watching KVille

I had a meeting run late, so I missed the first half of K-Ville last night, but I had my BF takes notes, and isn’t that sweet? I walked into Boulet trying to get the C4 plastic explosives out of the evidence room without the lame white guy from Minnesota knowing what he was doing. I’m glad that K-Ville wants to inject a little humour into the show every now and then, but does it have to be so cliched ALL the time? And I am getting a little sick of the gumbo-as-a-prop issue. Just because it’s New Orleans doesn’t mean that gumbo is the only food stuff consumed? Where’s the alligator?

All in all, I have to give it up to the writing department (and I never anticipated doing this), but it was a fairly solid script in that I came in half-way and I didn’t have a hard time figuring out what was going on. Cole Hauser got to act a little, although the clutching the sailboat necklace at the end was hokey. I like Cole Hauser, and I finally figured out that I have seen him before in among other things, Tigerland. Great movie if you haven’t seen it. Well, ok, pretty good.

Hurray for K-Ville using the underworld connections of Cobb to 1) develop a plot and 2) give us more Trevor Cobb backstory.

And is it just me or is this guy ever going to get laid?

And I liked the “Gardenia Affair” of Boulet’s wife. Though I didn’t quite get how that guy (who was kinda hot) accused Boulet of abandoning his family because he sent them to Atlanta. Even if he didn’t “send” them, who was paying their bills? Give the guy a break. New Orleans was devastated, it’s his home town, he got his wife and child to safety, and he stayed behind to help, rather than jump ship. Seems like the right thing to do to me. If anything, it’s the lecherous elementary school teacher that hits on married women that comes across as a jerk to me. Beware those teaching lotharios, ladies…even if they do pay attention to what your favorite flower is.

K-Ville, Cole Hauser, New Orleans, Tigerland, Gumbo, Alligator

k-ville

Two of the people in this photo are making me angry right now. Can you guess which two? Hint: It’s not Anthony or Cole.

So, KVille is my new beat, and the first week that I get to write about it, Prison Break has to take up the two precious prime time hours that FOX has on a Monday night. I’m so over Prison Break, and that is hard because I think that Wentworth Miller is pretty hot. But even he cannot make me watch that show anymore. Granted, I only watched the second season, after missing the first, but still, they should have ended it last year. Actually, I don’t even think I made it to the end of that season before I drifted off…

But wait, I’m writing about KVille here.

Let me explain my feelings about KVille, so as there is no confusion. Much like the previous Watching KVille author, I too feel that the show became better after the pilot. The second episode was more watchable, because frankly, the pilot was crap. I had such issues with the editing of the car chases — I get jump cuts, trust me, four years in film school will teach you all about jump cuts — but come on, already. And the sheer number of car chases drove (excuse the pun) me crazy as well. I wrote a review of the pilot for another site, and I was not kind.

But lo and behold, something made me watch KVille again, and I don’t know if happy is the right word, but I was something. The show was better. There was some character development. The direction wasn’t as jumpy, though still as sappy. And who knew it, but I really like Anthony Anderson.

So, here’s to KVille. Cheers.

And wow, I am actually disappointed that I won’t have a new episode to make fun of this week. Truthfully though, I did miss a couple of episodes, so let’s make this next week a catch-up week for all of us. FOX is gracious enough to post the full episodes on the FOX website, so let’s take advantage of this opportunity to get to know each other as we get to know KVille. Looking at the dates of past posts, it looks like it has been a while since this blog has had an author.

I’m Lulu, nice to meet you.

KVille, prison break, fox, anthony anderson

Before I explain that entry title, I wanted to say that after letting it sink in for a couple of days, I feel that even though the pilot was pretty good, episode 2 was a huge leap forward. It looked to me like Anthony and Cole were both a lot more comfortable in their roles and it looked like the entire cast, including brand-new hotty DA Swann, were actually having a good time.

Had a few obligatory chases but they were flavorings, not main events. I don’t think I saw anyone eating gumbo or po-boys. The views of they city were awesome. Very nice. And they didn’t just stick to the main areas of New Orleans. They branched out into JP which is a good thing.

So on to some thoughts from around the blogosphere.

This one if where I got my title, Fox Pulls ‘Nashville’ For ‘K-Ville’ Repeats. Looks like Nashville’s rating were extremely low so Fox is playing reruns in its time slot.

“K-Ville” repeats will run in the slot Sept. 28 and Oct. 5, then Major League Baseball will take over. Fox claims “Nashville” will return Nov. 9 (which is a shame – a network officially canceling a fall show on the first day of the season has a nihilistic ring about it).

From Associated Content, K-Ville’s Voodoo Keeps Viewers Tuning In. Ok, that’s kind of a cheesy title but they have good words for the show.

But perhaps the most striking difference between the first and second episodes is that the latter contains something the former was only able to wear as a mask, and that is the city itself. It’s one thing to talk about Mardi Gras and the French Quarter, to include pictures of the Mississippi River Bridge sprinkled throughout episodes with the sole intention of creating a setting, but New Orleans, to anyone who’s ever lived or even visited there knows, is more than a setting. There is an ambiance about the city that is mysterious, exciting, and even kind of dangerous. Nothing in New Orleans is ever black and white, and the writers of K-Ville used that fact, not only to create plausible storylines, but also as a way to move the city out of the realm of setting and into that of character.

And, finally, from Dave Walker at the TP, The “K-Ville” Weekly Scorecard: Episode Two. I get the feeling Dave kind of likes K-Ville.

Pocket review: On the whole and the jaw-droppingly goofy storyline aside, a wholesale improvement over the premiere. Anthony Anderson (as Boulet) and Cole Hauser (as Cobb) displayed genuine buddy-cop chemistry, as the episode locked in tighter on their earl-and-water relationship while not losing its “action” mojo. I’m not saying the actors or the writing for them have yet achieved repartee on the level of Webb-and-Morgan or Franz-and-Smits or even Soul-and-Glaser, but everybody seems headed in the right direction. And there were flashes of humor, a must in every episode for the series to transcend its rote, cop-show trappings. All niggling flaws considered, the hour was much less aggravating than its primary time-slot competition in New Orleans, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”

All in all, some good results for week 2. I have some faith the show may make it at least to mid-season. I’m holding my breath!

LewisC

new orleans, kville, k-ville, review, crime drama

I made some notes while watching tonight. I think it was a very good show. I had trouble getting people’s names. There’s a Swann who works in the DA’s office. Quite nice!

So here’s the synopsis:

The show started off with several guys running through a swampy area. In the beginning dialog, they said that there was a prison escape but the area they show wasn’t parish prison, that’s for sure. The are they were in was swampy. Supposedly it was OPP (Orleans Parish Prison) but that is not what the area around OPP looks like.

All the local cops were pulled into the man hunt and when they were discussing where the escapees might be, they were talking about the area around Bonnable Blvd. Cool that they ended up in Jefferson Parish right away. Old stomping grounds for me.

Of course, Cobb’s first thought was did he know these guys? He said he didn’t but he had the scoop on how three men can escape together. I don’t know why Cole thought it would be easier to hunt down every possible contact of one of the escapees than actually searching the likely areas, but that’s what they do. Of course, Cobb’s instinct worked out.

I have to mention something here. I like hot sauce. All kinds of hot sauce. The show had Boulet put hot sauce (crystal, I assume) in his oatmeal. Uck. Hot sauce on eggs sure. Even on grits. But oatmeal. Uck.

Cole’s instincts seem to pan out. The contact and escapees are at the airport. They called it Louie Armstrong? Do you call it that? Everybody I know either calls it “the airport” or they call it Moisant.

One escapee says he’s not going back so Marlin has to shoot him in the leg and then hit him in the face. The guy Cobb is after says if he goes back, he’s as good as dead. The prison guard (Carlson) leading the search for the escapees, starts shooting and Cobb knocks him down. The escapee hops in a car, tries to run over Cobb and then takes off. The escapee gets away by nailing a few cars on the down ramp from the airport parking garage.

(more…)

Episode 1.2 of K-Ville airs tonight, Sept 24. If you haven’t seen the pilot yet, you can still catch it online from Fox. Episode 1, K-Ville Pilot You’ll need to install a player to watch it.

If you have seen it, make sure to check out my synopsis. Give me feedback on what you like and don’t like. I’ll do more of the same for tonight’s episode.

Episode 1.2 details from fox: BOULET AND COBB TRACK PRISON ESCAPEES AND DETECT A MAJOR CORRUPTION CASE FACING NEW ORLEANS ON “K-VILLE” MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, ON FOX

When a jailbreak triggers a manhunt, NOPD cops Cobb and Boulet follow unconventional leads to New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Airport. At the scene, unexpected developments hinder the intense search. As the investigation centering on the fugitives unfolds, the scope of the case expands and Cobb’s history and experience are tested. Meanwhile, Captain Embry and Boulet battle frustration in dealing with powerful player Terrence DeVille, the Criminal Sheriff of New Orleans. Boulet, Cobb, “Love Tap” and “Glue Boy” uncover evidence left behind from the prison escape and a money trail, which exposes a deplorable cover-up in the “Cobb’s Web” episode of K-VILLE Monday, Sept. 24 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (KV-103) (TV-14; L, V ) CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1

Cast: Anthony Anderson as Marlin Boulet, Cole Hauser as Trevor Cobb, Tawny Cypress as Ginger “Love Tap” LeBeau, Blake Shields as Jeff “Glue Boy” Gooden and John Carroll Lynch as Captain James Embry.

Guest Cast: Amanda Righetti as A.J. Gossett, Milena Govich as D.A. Lyndsey Swann, Jamie McShane as Deputy Carlsson, Wayne Duvall as Terrence Deville, Chad Todhunter as Tim Dunlevy, Thomas Elliott as Chris Green, Alex Rayme as Fredi Leon, Maria Soccor as Laurenencia Leon, Rhoda Griffins as Cora Dunlevy, Andrew Masset as Tim Dunlevy, Sr., Mariana Klaveno as Kelly Vert, Rio Hackford as Bartender and David Jensen as Lanky.

LewisC

After reading many blog entries and even more blog comments, I have decided to put pen to paper (bytes to magnetic media?) and write a response outlining my views, not on the show itself, but on the comments I have read. This is an open letter to all New Orleanians who have been complaining about K-Ville.

I will be writing plenty about the show. I hope the show will be around for a long time. But for now, I want to talk about the objections to the show that I have read. A couple of points to start with:

First, K-Ville is a TV show. It’s not reality. It’s written by writers and acted by actors. If you are really expecting more than that, I have to ask why? Do you think people with jobs like those in Friends really live like Friends do? Do you think every reference to street names, directions and travel times are accurate in CSI, Law & Order, etc?

Second, being that it is a TV show, the producers would like to do right by the city and the people in the city. But the series is not for YOU. There aren’t enough people in New Orleans interested in watching K-Ville to make it a success. The series is for people in New York and Los Angeles and Podunk, West Nebraska. It needs to be what those people are looking for to be a success.

The objections I have seen and my response:

1. K-Ville - The natives don’t call it that. But some people do. I don’t know exactly who coined the phrase but Fox did not make the name up.
2. Accents - this is a stupid argument. If they try and get it wrong, they get hammered. If they don’t try, they get hammered. Every neighborhood in New Orleans has a different accent. I don’t sound like many of my cousins and such because they grew up in different areas of the city. Get over the accent thing.
3. Gumbo - This is a cliche. We all know it’s a cliche. Even the people in Podunk know it’s a cliche. The people outside New Orleans still want to see it. It’s comforting. Boulet eats Gumbo when he needs to think. I just eat. Get over it.
4. Voodoo Shops - See Gumbo. I will add this though, any time anyone goes to New Orleans for the first time, one of the things they want to see, is a voodoo shop. And then they want to eat some Gumbo.
5. Travel - They started in the quarters, went to Algiers and ended up at the casino. It’s TV. How many people outside the city know anything about directions in the city. It’s a TV show. Get over it.
6. Crime - Ok. I have to grant you this one. The city has a bad enough rap with the real crime. But, this is a crime drama. DRAMA. If anyone really thinks mercenaries are shooting up the French Quarter with Uzis, remind them it’s a TV show. Then take them to a Voodoo shop and buy them something. Preferably a box of Gumbo.
7. Car Chases - I am really with you on this one. I’ve seen a couple of references to the car chases being like Miami Vice without the pinks and yellows. Note to producer people: Cut it out.
8. It’s not Frank’s Place - Nothing will ever be Frank’s Place. Let it go. Let try to help this one last longer, though, ok?

That covers the major complaints that I have seen. Let me know if I missed any.

This is a TV show that can really help the city. It pumps money into the economy and it is better than Nagin’s brand for New Orleans. Even if the show is not EVERYTHING you hoped it would be, can you pull for it? Can you get behind it?

I consider all of the complaints above to be nit-picks. The characters are good and will get stronger over time. The location is the best it can be. The acting and direction was well done. Even though the pilot was somewhat cliche, it was still interesting. This has the potential to be a great show.

Instead of spending my time tearing it down, I am going to do my best to pump it up. If it really becomes a crap show, I will be the first to say so. If my biggest complaints are the accents and voodoo shops, I hope they laugh all the way to the bank. The city will be in line right next to them.

LewisC

new orleans, kville, k-ville, letter, complains, voodoo, accent, crime, crime drama

According to the Hollywood Reporter, ‘K-Ville’ premiere wins demo Monday night, K-Ville on Fox pretty much carried the night.

The dark cop show starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as police officers in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans drew 9.0 million viewers and a 3.4 rating/8 share among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m., the best demo numbers on the night, according to early Nielsen data.

That is very good news for the show. The important nights will be the second and third shows. If K-Ville can keep up decent numbers through the third show, that will be a good indicator for the success of the show. The reason I say that is if the numbers were high for the first show due to curiosity seekers versus true fans, the number should drop off dramatically in the second and third weeks.

So, we’ll just have to wait and see. I’m hoping for two things for this coming Monday night: less car chases and more views around New Orleans.

new orleans, kville, k-ville, season 1, reviews, nielsen, viewers

This article, that I saw in the Seattle Times BTW, is exactly why Chris Rose is Chris Rose. I wish this was the article I had written. “K-Ville” captures reality of post-Katrina New Orleans too well

Everything he says here is what I was thinking but it somehow got lost between my head and my fingers. Murder isn’t the New Orleans brand, Chris is!

When Fox first announced that it was developing the TV series “K-Ville,” my thinking was: I’ll watch it until it ticks me off, then I’ll never watch it again.

That is sooooo my first thought. I was pretty sure it would suck but I was determined to give it the chance to be great.

Yeah, there are some stupid names (A rich man named Rex Dubois? Are you kidding me?) and there’s a voodoo shop scene and a few other minor offenses that drive locals crazy, but if you watch this thing — listen to this thing — you realize maybe creator Jonathan Lisco and the other producers and writers, maybe they got the reality of post-Katrina New Orleans too much.

K-Ville can be a great show. May be. Maybe. If you haven’t seen it yet, read Chris’s article and then watch it.

LewisC

kville, k-ville, new orleans, neworleans, chris rose, tv, television, crime drama

I’ve already said what I think of the series so I will link to some other thoughts out there in the blogosphere. The way I see it there are three kinds of people out there: those who honestly enjoy it, those who honestly don’t enjoy it, and those who enjoy hating it.

From what I see, the haters hate it because THEY are elite and are insiders and no hollywood bumpkin could ever get it right. I won’t be posting links to the haters. I will post to those who like it and those who dislike it.

BuddyTV: K-Ville: Episode 1, “Pilot” Recap

Another fundraiser, another shooting. This time, though, the squad car is blown up so they can’t chase the shooter. The new partners fight and disagree on tactics. Charlie brings information to Marlon that leads to the Casino being involved. It seems that the security detail is made up of mercenaries, ex-special forces personnel capable of carrying out these attacks. The police strong-arm the Casino owner into cooperating by reminding him that his daughter is one of the main fund raisers and that she could get hurt if the attacks continue.

TVGuide.com: Thumbs up for K-Ville

This one’s short and sweet: I didn’t catch the whole ep, but what I did see of it, I thought was pretty good. There’s nothing about K-Ville that you haven’t seen before in other shows…but that’s not such a bad thing. It doesn’t have to be wholly original. It just has to be good. And from what I saw, the show’s a solid, straight-ahead cop drama colored with the problems that Hurricane Katrina caused—and continues to cause years after the fact.

Underground Online: K-Ville

…K-Ville is an old-fashioned show about ordinary people forced to deal with extraordinary situations. Set in a post-Katrina New Orleans, K-Ville is far from perfect, but it’s an ambitious concept that tries to offer TV viewers something a little different. It’s likely to stumble and get the axe before it has time to develop the potential it shows in its premiere, but if given a chance, K-Ville could be one of the more consistently entertaining cop dramas in a long time.

Fangasm: K-Ville Worth It?

The two main cops are über boring. The writing is piss-poor. The only reason to even watch this show is for the location shots. And why even watch it when it’s up against one of the highest rated shows - Heroes!? Were the people at Fox HIGH when they picked the time-slot?

Time: K-Ville: Taking the (Big) Easy Way Out

If the idea had been sold to FX, or another cable network freer to go all in with the concept, this could have been a show worth talking about. As it is, the first two episodes are by-rote whodunits with a little local color and glimpses of New Orleans’ desperate straits thrown in. (Some post-flood graffiti reads, “FEMA: Fix Everything My Ass.”) This compromise might have worked if the two halves of the show–the want to and have to halves–had been better integrated. But the procedural elements are so ordinary, it’s jarring when K-Ville suddenly shows signs of broader purpose, with stories of prison labor used to rebuild New Orleans and police precinct houses where the copy machines don’t work.

As an eternal optimist, I am hoping the show grows legs. I hope the writers and producers are listening to the bloggers. Not the haters, not the ones who THINK they know something. Those people will never be happy. I’m hoping they listen to the people who are pointing out why the show has problems with the general public.

K-Ville will not be successful because some New Orleans insiders are happy about its authenticity. It will be a success because America in general likes it. I want it to be a success!

new orleans, kville, k-ville, crime drama, pilot, first episode, blog, feedback

This is a total spoiler. Don’t read on if you don’t want to be spoiled.

When Katrina hit, Marlin Boulet, an NOPD cop did his best to help the people of his city. His partner despaired of the death and destruction and freaked out. He took the patrol car and drove away leaving behind and unbelieving Martin.

Flash forward to today, in New Orleans. Marlin is doing a bit of drinking, a bit more than he should. Today he gets a new partner and runs into the old one. He doesn’t know if he can trust the former because he knows he can’t trust the latter. Both will work to gain his trust.

Partner “nut job”, aka Trevor Cobb, is an afghan vet, specifically Kandahar. He’s a cop from up north. Or is he? Hmmmmm. He’s refers to the neutral ground as the..er..neutral ground. He also knows the streets around town awfully well for a newbie.

While covering a fund raiser, Kasha Fontaine, a singer and close friend of Marlin’s, is shot. The bad guys escape in an old gold beater car. Obligatory car chase ensues. We are treated to a tour of New Orleans at speeds I have not traveled since I was a teenager, ironically on some of the exact same streets. ;-0

The chase ends at a casino. The perps escape into the casino, on foot and are followed by our intrepid heroes. The perps escape but we find out that the cameras in the casino have been moved around so that no video images are captured. Voila! It’s a clue.

Marlin assumes that an old boyfriend of the singer is the guilty party and takes him trawling. Well, dunks him. Best pun of the show: while Marlin is dunking the boyfriend off the side of a shrimp boat, Trevor asks him, “Don’t you think this is overboard?” Bwahahahaha.

At home, Marlin’s wife and little girl can’t deal with the lack of services, schools, crime, etc. They need to leave. They want to head back to Atlanta. Marlin decides he can’t leave. This is his city and someone has to stay behind to take control back from the thugs.

Sometimes you have to stand and fight for what you believe in.

(more…)

As my first entry in the K-Ville world, I thought I would give an idea of what the pundits are saying. In general, the press has been unfavorable. The blogosphere on the other hand has been much better. I have watched the premier myself and while it’s not perfect, I think it has great potential.

Boston Globe: New Orleans provides turbulent backdrop for ‘K-Ville’

As Anderson and the show’s writers twist and shout to make points about the desperation and valiance of New Orleans, “K-Ville” becomes less than it could be. Tonight’s crime plot is set in motion after a shooting at a Katrina charity event, and the cops proceed to rifle through all levels of society in search of a motive. But that plot comes off as an afterthought, something thrown in to frame the portrait of Boulet. The show would benefit enormously by paying more attention to the crime stories, and letting the pain left in Katrina’s wake emerge incidentally, undeniably.

Cincinnati Post: New on TV: ‘K-Ville,’ Kelsey, snotty kids

The hook is that this is shot on location in post-Katrina New Orleans. That’s supposed to grab at our heartstrings as these cops feel passionate about their city. It comes off in the pilot as just exploiting the city’s real-life pain for cheap dramatic purposes. On the other hand, if the city’s present-day injustices can be raised with care and compassion in future episodes, it could poignantly make this rise above another cop show. It doesn’t in the pilot.

USA Today: Tasteless ‘K-Ville’ is the big sleazy

You could argue that any attention is good attention, considering how desperately the city needs our aid. Still, it’s hard to see what public good is served by turning New Orleans into some high-octane Deadwood on the Mississippi. Even to suggest that the networks might have some greater social responsibility beyond making money for their stockholders is to risk sounding quaint these days — but it is nevertheless true, and this show violates it.

Philidelphia Inquirer: ‘K-Ville’ blows ill for New Orleans

It’s one of those series where they constantly feel constrained to explain what’s going on, even though it’s obvious. “You figured we were on to you,” Anderson tells a criminal, “so you wanted to send a message.”

The only message here is: Change the channel.

Spokesman Review: ‘K-Ville’ puts Big Easy in spotlight

The camera shows both sides of New Orleans, the vibrant tourist center of the French Quarter as well as the unreclaimed squalor of its abandoned districts. And if the first two episodes are any indication, both sides of the city share the same atmosphere of corruption. “K-Ville” is a place where rich and powerful puppet masters wield enormous power with a callous cruelty befitting petty colonels in a Third World banana republic. This may or may not reflect the true state of things in New Orleans, but “K-Ville’s” rich gumbo of cynicism and doom fits in rather nicely with Fox’s Monday-night buffet of “Prison Break” and “24″ – shows shot through with paranoia and conspiracy, where the treachery and treason reach all the way to the top.

San Francisco Chronicle: Goodman: New Orleans deserves better than mediocre ‘K-Ville’. That’s TIM goodman, not JOHN Goodman.

The most distinguishing element - and the most important - in the new Fox drama “K-Ville,” is that it’s filmed on location in New Orleans. It’s a cop show about life, post-Katrina, in the Big Easy, so the people determined to rebuild there might as well get some of the benefits of a local production.

Mercury News: Oh, ‘K-Ville,’ can you break out of cop box?

Is it fair to demand more? After all, the series is fighting against a tide of escapist TV and more specifically against a show — “Heroes” — that defines the trend. “K-Ville’s” humble, street-level heroes can’t fly or teleport themselves, so what’s wrong with deploying a few slam-bang theatrics to help level the playing field?

Now that I am thoroughly depresses, I will stop. I do plan to watch. I plan to watch every week. I will keep you updated daily. I hope the series lasts for a long time. How about you?

LewisC