Like many Canadians, I sort of assumed that the TV show had something, if in name only, to do with the infamous Black Donnellys, especially with co-creator Paul Haggis being, well from London, Ontario and all. Alas, it’s not, other than the name and the whole criminal-thing, The Black Donnellys has nothing at all in common with that infamous family. Well, except that Haggis must have thought they had a pretty cool name and one of the boys even has a bum leg in Haggis’s world, just like “Clubfoot Will,” one of the original Donnelly sons.
Annnnywaaaay. I really wish that TWoP was recapping the show in all it’s cheese-eating glory. Because for some reason, despite the fact that it’s, well, awful, I can’t stop watching it. I’m even forcing my RRHB to watch it and saying totally banal things like: “See, see it’s getting better!”
It’s so cliched and heavy-handed, with the ridiculous “narrator” from some distant point in the future (seriously?) re-telling the backstory in such painful episodes that you want to reach into the television, grab him, and hand him over to Tony Soprano. Did I mention that he’s called “Joey Ice Cream”? Yeah, exactly. Every time he comes on screen I think, why do they need him, is the story not strong enough on its own. And has Paul Haggis ever heard of “show don’t tell”? Which is what every single writing teacher has told me my entire life?
The worst part is, with a little finesse, the show could actually be good. I like stories that take the main character, in this case, the eldest brother, Tommy, off the course of his life and into something totally unexpected. I’m even not minding the train wreck of the second-oldest (I think) brother, Jimmy, who is, predictably a heroin addict and a violent SOB who never truly, although we’re repeatedly told it’s coming, gets his comeuppance. I mean he’s such a used and abused character in pop culture: the ‘bad’ brother. But what’s worse is that the show keeps telling us he’ll get the other brothers into trouble and nothing ever seems to happen. Tommy makes sure he’s in jail to keep him safe, and then, next thing we know he’s out of jail and some pale flashback explains how that happened. He walks drunk and high into a wake (for the man that Tommy killed) and the narrator says, “this is going to be bad.” And again, NOTHING HAPPENS.
I’m guessing that if I’m just a little bit patient, the show might actually turn itself around, but for now, I’ve got really no idea why I’m still watching it. I suppose it comes down to the fact that I totally think Kirk Acevedo is, like, wickedly hot. But is that enough to keep the show in a permanent always-tape Faux-Vo status? Probably not.
For once I’d like someone to step in and pull Paul Haggis out of his desperate need to hack together elements of relationships (familial and otherwise) with giant baseball bat bashing on head-like “situations” (to totally mix my own metaphors) and to let the characters develop more like they do on cable, slowly and with larger purpose. But I guess in this day and age, where shows are supposed to last forever and deal with everything in every bloody episode (Grey’s Anatomy, I’m looking at you), subtlety is not necessarily top of mind.