More 'Black Donnellys'

Although I'm still struggling a bit to get the brothers straight, I'm finding this show more and more intriguing.

Now, let's see... Tommy's the easy brother to identify. He's basically the protagonist in this cast -- the brother who feels responsible to rescue his petty-thievin' three brothers, the brother who went on the straight and narrow after accidentally hitting one brother while driving a stolen car in his pre-teen days. Tommy's the brother with the art talent and the brains, the one who could make something of himself. Tommy's the brother who gets drawn into the mob scene when his only goal is to save his brothers. Tommy's the one destined to be the leader.

Sean is the brother beaten by mobsters and recovering in the hospital. He's the one who drives the girls wild. We'll see if the beating took any toll on his looks as he recovers. Jimmy is the one who's in jail, a drug addict, and the one who Tommy hit with the stolen car causing a lifelong limp. But, at least he can walk. Oh, Tommy's guilt! Then there's Kevin, a kind of bumbling hapless kind of guy and the only one Tommy can really team up with as Sean and Jimmy aren't quite available to hide the evidence.

Oh, and then there's Joey Ice Cream. Now, I think we've all known a tag-along like him at some time or another in our lives. He wants to be in with the In Crowd. In his case, that crowd is the Donnelly brothers and the periphery of the Irish mob scene in New York City. It's Joey who narrates the show as he tells two cops the story from his jail cell. Why's he in there? I don't know. Why's he talking? I'd say he's trying to get a deal from the cops for his own case, whatever that is. Plus, Joey's a bit star-struck.

New York City? Why not Boston? I don't know. Well, wait... actually I do know. The series creators grew up in Hell's Kitchen, an area of the city which is now more politically correctly called Clinton. It's more gentrified these days, yet the series beckons more to the area as it was a few decades back.

Although this show has the most discombobulated Manhattan scenes I've ever seen, I'm loving the street shots. There is no elevated subway track in Hell's Kitchen, nor on the Lower East Side where the bar owned by the brothers actually exists. And every time I see the bar shots, I know I've sat at the table by the window under the flaking piano keys on the wall. I know I've played pool on the faded red-flannel covered pool table under the fake Tiffany lamp. It's all so odd, but I'm waiting for them to show the sign in the Ladies Room which reads "Friends don't let friends bring home ugly people." (Yes, that sign exists in the bathroom of the Parkside Lounge, the bar used in the series.)

This week's episode included the New Jersey swamp areas I see from the train whenever I head into the city. I always look out on those swamps and think that they must contain mob victims or perhaps those of serial killers. When I saw the brothers were trying to dump a body there, I thought "that's as good a place as any."

The Black Donnellys is dark. It's darkly shot and dark in mood. Yet there is some humor coming from Joey Ice Cream and sometimes within the interactions of the brothers. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. I like dark crime-related dramas and even I found the scene where Tommy had to make the body fit in the barrel a bit disturbing. Powerful, very intense for television, but disturbing. On the other hand, I could have told the boys how to get those sensor tags off without breaking the ink. (No, I'm not a shoplifter.)

I'm going to keep watching this show. At this point, I'm still too easily confused to really do a proper job blogging about it. But I was also at that point with Heroes... a show I now love and have the characters down pretty well. As long as NBC gives this series a real chance, I'll get to know these characters better. Currently, I'm finding it very intriguing.

Right now the official website for the show has a full online-only episode they deem "too explosive" for television. You can access that episode with this link.

Are you watching the show?