PilotWatch: BOSS

Starz Fridays @ 10

What's it about?
Mayor Tom Kane sits like a spider at the center of Chicago's web of power; a web built on a covenant with the people.  They want to be led, they want disputes settled, jobs dispensed, and loyalties rewarded.  If he achieves through deception and troubling morality, so be it.  As long as he gets the job done, they look the other way.  Yet despite being the most effective mayor in recent history, a degenerative brain disorder is ripping everything away from him.  He can't trust his memory, his closest allies, or even himself.

So, how was it?
This review already feels somewhat moot, considering the series was renewed for a second season before the first season even began.  It doesn't matter what I or anyone else thinks, because it's going to be sticking around for at least two years.  But now that we've actually seen the first episode for ourselves, we can discuss: does it deserve it?

I felt very conflicted about this show.  Almost everything about it was top-notch: the acting, the directing, the cinematography, the score.  Kelsey Grammer is unsurprisingly stellar as the charismatic yet morally dubious Mayor Kane.  He is surrounded by less well-known but equally capable actors who portray everything from advisors to aldermen, from spouses to drug dealers.  The first hour was full of beautifully shot sequences that felt almost cinematic in their direction.  So why was I not blown away?

I think it's because, despite all these assets, the show itself is just not that good.  At least, not yet.  The first hour felt cliché, over-dramatic and extremely heavy handed.  Did we need to see Mayor Kane receive a victim's ears in a box in the last five minutes to understand that he's not a good guy?  Weren't the previous 55 minutes enough to show us that he's morally corrupt?  That kind of clumsily excessive writing doesn't add to the drama -- it undermines it.  It took the potentially-realistic series and made it an over-the-top tale of a gangster-mayor.  It's like Starz is trying to make Mayor Kane the Tony Soprano of politics.  Or, more accurately, the Walter White of politics.  Seriously, just take a look at this poster of the most recent season of AMC's popular BREAKING BAD:

Now, compare Bryan Cranston's expression in that poster with Kelsey Grammer's in the poster above.  Minus the facial hair, they are almost exactly the same.  Not that riffing off of other contemporary popular shows shouldn't be allowed (THE PLAYBOY CLUB and PAN AM both did it this year), but 

it generally doesn't lead to the most compelling original material.

Perhaps most importantly, the entire premise of the show felt almost unnecessary: that this corrupt Mayor learns he is suffering from a degenerative neurological disorder.  Kelsey Grammer is such a good actor, and politics are already such a minefield of complex storylines, that such a heavy-handed addition to the plot felt entirely superfluous.  I would have been completely content to watch Kelsey Grammer chew the scenery and partake in the machinations and backstabbings of Chicago politics without a fatal disease thrown in on top.  It reminded me of how the pilot of THE PLAYBOY CLUB started with an over-the-top murder of a gangster by a Bunny with the heel of her stiletto.  The idea that we need this extra hook to draw us in isn't engaging, it's insulting and betrays a lack of confidence in the material.  Now, I'm only saying this because after the opening scene where Mayor Kane finds out about the disease, it was barely an issue in the entire hour.  Perhaps as time goes on it will become more central to the plot, but for now, it felt like a quick addition on the top of an already complex plot for the mere purpose of hooking viewers.

Rating:
** Okay. I may give it another episode or two to see if it gets good.
If the material were as good as the actors and the direction, I would be very excited about this show.  As of yet, the writers can't seem to decide if they're going for realism or an exaggerated tale of corruption and betrayal that simply happens to be set in modern-day Chicago.  If they're going for realism, they need to cut down on the severed ears and injecting unassuming doctors with neurological inhibitors.  If they're going for the exaggerated version, then they need to cut down on the lengthy monologues about the nature of politics, and give in to the over-the-top absurdity inherent in a gangster mayor.  I may come back for another episode or two to see if the show strikes a better balance in one direction or another.  But if it doesn't, I'm not sure even Kelsey Grammer's admittedly stellar abilities will be enough to keep this one in my docket.

Your turn, Fellow Addicts! Were you turned off by the heavy-handed nature of the pilot? Or did you find it exciting? Do you think the show should go for more realism or more over-the-top?  Vote in the poll below and then hit the comments!

(For a quick glance at the other pilots coming out, check out my Fall TV Preview.)

What did you think of BOSS?