Watching KVille

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