K-ville Season 1, Episode 6

I've been busy and have been in and out of town so I am watching this episode online at fox.com. It's a bit slow getting started. I hope the performance is decent once it gets going.

It's going now. Very nice! Hi res and speedy!

Cobb chases a guy down and the guy recognizes him. The guy smacks Cobb in the face and gets away. glue Buy is jumped and has to shoot the guy.

Cobb tells Boulet the guy ran with a gang that Cobb also ran with.

I can't get over how good the video.

Glue Boy goes into an induced coma due to brain swelling. Cobb decides he needs to take out those bad boys. The drama queen!

Cobb is going undercover to take out the gang.

Best line so far: Boulet says, "There has to be another way." Cobb says, "There is." Boulet says, "I like it without even hearing it." After a pause, "Maybe I should hear it."

Turns out this is the gang that Cobb took the money from. Where I'm from, they'd just shoot him.

Boulet sees his wife and she's hugging another dude. Uhoh.

The dude is the daughter's teacher from Atlanta. Nothing physical. Uhoh. Emotional cheating. That's bad.

After 5 years of nothing, they decide to bring Cobb back in. They give him the info for the next job right away. It's got to be a set up.

Yep, it's a set up. No job planned. They wanted to see if anything got leaked. Which it did. Didn't see that coming.

Online only has 1 advertisement. It's nice not to have to sit through 10 minutes of commercials but that cingular commercial is getting old.

A young punk is keeping an eye out for cops. He spots the cops but not before Boulet spots him. He makes the kid call and say everything is ok.

And there's even a red-head hoodlette named wanda involved. Cobb diggs through a dresser and one of the hoods busts him (what did he think was going to happen) so the fight. Sissy slap fight.

Boulet watches his wife sleep.

Cobb makes time with wanda.

The head hood asks Cobb to get C4.

Boulet and Love Tap visit the guy's wife that got killed at the beginning of the show.

Boulet feeds the new property guy some nuclear corn mach choux. It's a test to see who's got the biggest. To bad Boulet rigged it. ;-)

Boulet gets the C4 while the other cop is puking. Boulet tells him to drink some milk to help the burn. He also tells him, "You might as well eat a banana because that's gonna burn twice."

Boulet gets home but no one is there. The wife left a message saying that she was staying at a friends house. I think she's with the boyfriend.

Boyfriend visits and drops off flowers at Boulet's house. The guy is a complete numb nut. He's got the balls to call Boulet out about not being in Atlanta with his wife after Katrina. Boulet let's him go but he should have popped him one.

Head hood popped hoodlette one. Cobb gonna get some of that.

Cobb hooks up with Boulet at a bar to discuss what's going on. Wanda sees them leave and see the light in the back of the car. Not good. She tells head hood.

Cobb is not in a good place right now.

Boulet gets the cops and they bust into the gang house. No one is home.

The hoods go to the house of the guy who got killed. They plan to use the C4 to blow the guy's safe.

Boulet makes a single call and finds out that the only person in New Orleans with that safe is the guy who got killed.

Cobb grabs the little girl and jumps out a window right as the NOPD shows up. Hood starts shooting.

They realize Cobb is a cop but Wanda doesn't believe it. Dumb hood decided he's going to rig the explosive himself.

Kerboom, house goes up in flames but not before head hood shoots hoodlette. Wanda is down. Permanent down.

Glue Boy makes it back.

Cobb lives in a pull trailer by the water. I didn't notice that before.

Boulet's wife comes home and he has dinner cooked and the wife's favorite flowers on the table.

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K-Ville Season 1, Episode 5

I DVR'd last week's K-Ville and am just now watching it. Tonight is a rerun.

So, this episode starts off with a great image of Jackson Square from the air. Those images are my favorite part of this show.

Cobb tells Boulet to take off and meet his family, that he'll cover the shift. Dispatch calls (actually the Capt did but he was calling for dispatch). Shots fired at a church.

It just happens to be Boulet's family church. He knows the layout because he grew up going there. The cops hearing people singing hymns and enter the church. The priest denies anything happened and that there were no shots.

Cobb looks around and finds a body. A deacon. The people apparently know Boulet and don't seem to like him. Boulet's been holding a grudge about something and these might have a grudge of their own.

Flashback to Sept 1987.

Boulet and his bother are playing in the church. The little brother brought a water gun. Boulet tells him they will get in trouble. He gets squirted in the face and they run off. They end up running into the dead deacon.

I'm betting molestation at this point.

Back to the present. The cops are searching and interviewing all of the people in the church.

Best Line of the show: Boulet gets up in front of the congregation and says: "The ladies auxiliary bake sale has been postponed due to violent murder." And he smiles. ;-)

He tries to get people to say something but no one will. They decided to interrogate everyone one face to face with out the rest of the herd.

Turns out that there was a run in between the preacher, Boulet's little brother and I would bet, the deacon. Boulet's little brother, Troy, is now deceased.

It also turns out that the deacon got part of an earing before he died. They're now looking for a bloody ear. That should make it easier to find someone. No bloody ear found though. The culprit escaped out the back door. Who would have thought that a murderer might run out the back door?

A crazy old lady gives up the name of the perp. Not quite sure why. The perp is Shawn Rider a junior hoodlum.

Wow. After an argument with Cobb (about his grudge against the priest), Boulet says that the priest is responsible for Troy's death. I'm still betting on molestation.

Flashback June 1999. Troy is still alive. Maybe it wasn't molestation. Troy is doing crack. Boulet is talking to the priest about it. The priest asks Boulet to bring Troy in for an intervention. At first Boulet says no, he doesn't want to lie and trap his brother.

Back to the present. Cobb doesn't buy it.

There's an undercurrent that the deacon was trying to sell the church but the whole selling property thing is getting old. I hope that is not really what the issue is.

The cops raid Shawn's house. He's not there but there are some bloody rags in the garbage.

Boulet and Cobb confront the priest about the deacon trying to sell the church. They get nothing.

Cobb calls Boulet's wife. He asks her about Troy and how he died. Troy died, was shot, while robbing a convenience store.

Flashback July 1999. The intervention. Not much to describe but it is some good back story. It makes the characters in the show that much more real. I'm not so big on the flashbacks though.

Back to the present. Boulet remembers the priest taking the water gun and where he put it. He makes the priest open the same place. He finds the gun.

I missed something but Shawn's girlfriend was someone Boulet knew and she just recently died in a car wreck. The cop crew head's to the cemetery and find's Shawn at the grave. Of course, he runs. Of course, they catch him.

Boulet is still preaching to the choir. Bwahahahahaha. He was baptised in that church and was married in that church. He DESERVES TO KNOW! Just a tad preachy here.

Cobb gets a call. Shawn confesses to the killing but the priest claims that he killed the deacon. Jah!

Flashback October 1999. Troy is playing chess with the padre. Boulet walks in. It's good times.

Back to the present. Boulet doesn't believe the priest. The priest says that he and the deacon got into a fist fight. Shawn tried to break it up.

Shawn is confessing to the Capt.

The priest said that the gun fell out of Shawn's waist band. He picked it up and shot the deacon. The congregation agrees.

Instead of bringing the priest to the jail, they bring Shawn to the church. They want to verify the story. Shawn doesn't know the story though.

Flashback to the convenience store and Troy on the floor shot. Troy was using again and he confessed to the preach. The preach didn't share that info with Boulet so Boulet blamed him for his death.

Boulet thinks the same thing happened with Shania.

It was Shania's grandma! When the gun slid across the floor, the old lady picked it up and popped a cap in the deacon. Go granny!

Although, should a preacher give up people's confessions? I don't think so.

Shania killed herself because the deacon was raping her. I was right! It was molestation but the wrong person.

Flashforward one week. Boulet drops by to see the preacherman. Boulet is a criminal. His brother killed someone but he looked the other way. So Boulet blames himself. If he had arrested Troy, he wouldn't have robbed the store.

They play a game of chess while a couple of little boys go running down the hallway.

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Orleans Parish Prison: K-Ville vs Reality

The character of Trevor Cobb, played by Cole Hauser, was a prisoner in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) and almost drowned when Katrina struck. His cell mate did drown. In K-ville episode 2, three prisoners escape from OPP and the show centers around that facility.

There is a good possibility that people may believe that prisoners drowned in real life. To set the record straight and provide some additional background for the series, I thought I would share a little bit of real life information about OPP. Just a note, my dad was NOPD and as a kid I used to hang out at central lockup and the court house. I even got a personal tour of a small part of OPP. I know quite a few people who know it a lot more intimately than I do. heh

So, I wanted to share something I read on Java Joe's Journal Jive, Trouble over 'K-Ville': Nothing bad happened at prison!. Apparently, the OPP Medical Director is not happy about what transpired in the K-Ville pilot. I bet he really hates K-Ville's second episode. ;-O

“No one died in the OPP,” says Inglese. “Fiction or not, this depiction is an affront to the medical staff and deputies who, for five harrowing days, risked their lives for the inmates and civilians in their care. They’re among the many unsung heroes of Katrina—as are many inmates—who will never receive the recognition they deserve. Minimally, however, their heroism should not be undermined. Unfortunately, since so many factual depictions make up the back story of K-Ville, viewers nationwide are left with the impression that prisoners under our care drowned.”

That should set the story straight. No one died as OPP during Katrina. It should be noted that Dr Inglese has a book, No Ordinary Heroes: 8 Doctors, 30 Nurses, 7,000 Prisoners and a Category 5 Hurricane, about his experiences.

Having said that, I am sure OPP was not a pleasant place after Katrina hit. From one inmate present at the time (quote provided by the ACLU):

Breakfast on August 29 was the last meal that the inmates ate at the prison—from that point on they had no food or water. Inmate #52 reports that escaping prisoners were shot at, and that "deputies did assault prisoners." Inmate #52 reports the inmates could not breathe, and he "thought we were going to sufacate [sic]." Some inmates found a pipe and started to break windows to get oxygen. After 48 hours on F Side, Inmate #52 was brought to the bridge early Wednesday morning, before the sun came up. The inmates were "told to leave everything behind, and walk out with our hands on our heads. The water was so deep I had [two] small prisoners holding on to me. One on each shoulder." The inmates were taken to the bridge in small boats carrying approximately 8 to 10 prisoners at a time. Once on the bridge, Inmate #52 still did not receive food or water.

Definitely not a pleasant experience. I'm sure the experience wasn't much better for the cops or the guards either, though.

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A View of K-Ville and Ratings

Dave Walker, from the TP, has a great write up about where K-Ville stands in the ratings game played by the networks. In "'K-Ville' hopes to build ratings momentum starting Monday", Dave discusses how and why K-Ville needs to work on its ratings.

Dave feels that K-Ville has been "trending upwards" creatively and is on the "low end of acceptable" commercially. Personally, I find that is has improved greatly creatively but I have to admit he's right commercially. It's at the bottom of the charts for broadcast ratings.

The episodes have been getting better and better with the characters getting stronger and integrating as a team. The story line of Boulet and his interactions with his family and with ex-partner Charlie is some good TV.

I heard a rumor that K-Ville was moving time slots, but Dave's article sounds like it will be staying right where it is. I'm glad about that but going up against football and Heroes doesn't do it any rating favors.

The big unknown is a Hollywood writer's strike:

One factor in "K-Ville's" future that apparently nobody can control is the possibility of a fall strike by the Writers Guild of America. The guild's contract with studios expires Nov. 1. The sides appear to be far apart on bargaining issues, chief of which is figuring a fair digital-distribution revenue split.

I'm afraid that if there is a strike, K-Ville and everything else at the lowend will be on the chopping block. Dave points out that we will "soon clog with quickie reality shows, reruns, newsmagazines and sports". Ugh. Please no more reality shows. No quickies, not slowies, not any. Just say NO to reality. If I wanted reality, I'd have a life.

K-Ville in the New York Times

The NYT had a good write up about K-Ville, Cop Show Comes Calling in Battered New Orleans. I don't particularly like NYT because, for many articles, you have to log in. This headline caught my eye though.

I have three hopes for K-Ville.

1) I hope it doesn't get cancelled. I heard that The Sarah Conner Chronicles will be moving to Monday nights and will displace K-Ville. Uhoh, not good.

2) I hope the shows keeps showing more and more of the precinct and the other officers. I like the story line with ex-partner Charlie, too.

3) I hope, keeping #1 in mind, that the series is very successful over the long term. I don't know if you remember Frank's Place but I hope K-Ville is much more successful. I think having a series every week that keeps New Orleans in people's minds could be very beneficial.

The article says that some people are bothered that in New Orleans, people don't refer to the city as K-Ville. That's true but I have read it quite a bit. I read it from people natives and non-natives. I think the title is a non-issue. I mean it's a TV show for christ's sake. It beats reality TV and Dr Phil.

Best Quote: Employment and other economic benefits are at the heart of that welcome. Ms. Day said that 80 percent of the crew on the show is local. “It takes eight days to film an episode,” she said. “Over that eight days a little more than a million dollars is pumped into the local economy.”

Wikipedia has a write up about K-Ville. Short but good. I'm sure info will be added to it over time.

Cole Hauser on Playing a Cop

Cole Hauser plays Trevor Cobb, new partner to Anthony Anderson's Marlin Boulet. Trevor escaped from a flooded prison and joined the army before joining the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and becoming a cop. Cole is working hard to play an authentic NOPD officer.

According to this article at CanMag.com, Cole has been spending time with the real NOPD as research.

"They do things differently in New Orleans, different than around the country as far as the cops I've been around, whether it be New York or Los Angeles," said Hauser. "It's just a different style. As far as playing characters that are cops in New Orleans, it's the best kind of cop you can play. The fact is that in doing things different and being around and just the actual place that we're at in the French Quarter and dealing with Louisiana and Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and seeing the things that these guys go through."

Some of the actors have been allowed to travel with the police, even with SWAT, and get to see how the officers work and what it is like to arrest someone. In addition to getting a close-up introduction to the criminal element in New Orleans, the actors are getting to know the freakshow that is night-time New Orleans (and I say that affectionately).

Even in good times, New Orleans presents a different kind of perp. "It's the people they're dealing with. You have to understand like the French Quarter, everybody thinks New Orleans is the French Quarter. You go down there, everybody is drinking, you're talking about a city that is partying 24/7 and the people that they're dealing with, the perps that they're dealing with, most people are either on drugs in that quarter or drinking out of their mind. So the people that they're dealing with are just, pardon the expression, but out of their minds drunk."

I'm glad these guys are in New Orleans making this show. The NOPD has had some bad publicity, some of it very much deserved, but the cops in New Orleans are mostly good people with a really hard and dangerous job. I'm hoping K-Ville with shed a little light on the real NOPD just as much as I hope that K-Ville will shed some light on the real NOLA. It would be nice if the show spent more time in the precinct and with the various officers.

K-Ville in the News

Since there was no K-Ville on TV this week, here are some links from the last month:

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?

K-Ville Season 1, Episode 4 - The New Orleans Lesbian Voodoo Dead Episode

Well, I finally got watch the DVRed episode 4. I am live blogging this, i.e. I am writing notes and thoughts as I watch it rather than after.

It starts out with Cobb flipping over a katrina-ized refrigerator and pulling out a wad of cash. After cleaning and drying it, he head's over to an unknown woman's trailer.

Flashback to the cell with his cellmate and a discussion about the cellmate's girlfriend.

Back to the present, we can guess that that's the unknown woman. She looks somewhat familiar to me but I can't place her. He gives here $21,250 and tells her it's legit.

Cobb gets a call on the cell and leaves. The team is standing around looking at a female body. Around the body is voodoo paraphernalia. But's it's a staged scene. Boulet knows cause Boulet knows all.

Best line is when Boulet says he once went kosher to impress a girl. A co-worker asks how that worked out. "Great, until she caught me two timing with a roast pork poboy!" heh

There is the obligatory voodoo explanation about voodoo being a religion and not a cult.

The dead woman, Mary, payed cash for her bar and house. She had been in New Orleans for only five years and there was no paper trail on her before that.

Boulet's deserting ex-partner Charlie is back again. The chief is giving officers who deserted a chance to come back. Charlie wants to get his job back and asks Boulet to be a character witness for him.

Charlie tells Boulet he can get him a gig on a security detail at a hotel where he can clear 10 or 15k extra per year. Boulet takes it as a bribe and goes off on him.

Would you be opposed to Charlie going back to work if you were Boulet? I'm not sure how I would react.

Cobb and Boulet talked afterwards and Cobb makes a good point. The stories of snipers and daughters being raped. It's hard to judge if you weren't a cop during and after the storm.

Boulet and Cobb investigate Mary's house. It's sparse, no books, looks like she wasn't far from running. They find a Tupperware thingie in the back of a toilet. Letters with no names or addresses.

They get info on the voodoo paraphernalia and track it back to a DJ. They go to his house and find voodoo hoodoo so they break in. The DJ takes off in a car and almost runs over Cobb. What does Cobb do? He hops on the roof.

Of course, the super duo catch him. For a fat guy, Boulet sure can move. Doesn't even breath hard. The only thing is that the he turns into a she. The runner, I mean, not Boulet.

Sam, the DJ, was in love with Mary, the dead girl. New Orleans, Lesbian Voodoo. Cool!

Sam gave Mary an article that a local paparazzi took. Mary was a Katrina angel helping people with mortgages and stuff. The guy talked to Mary who said she didn't want credit but the guy still used her image and name in the article.

Ohhh. They track down the dead woman's history. Turns out Mary has been dead for 20 years. I'm guessing this is a case of stolen identity as opposed to an return to life situation. Add undead to the New Orleans Lesbian Voodoo though and that would be a cool story. ;-)

The captain says he's thinking about bringing Charlie back and gives Boulet his personnel file. Talk about a big no no. That's a good way to lose your job. I'm still very curious what's in it though.

Is it just me, or is the story about Charlie and the rest of the crew more interesting than the "main" story? I'd really like them to spend more time at the precinct, ala Hill Street Blues.

Back on the main story, Mary was a battered woman and had old broken bones. The original Mary died in a factory fire. She may have been connected to a battered woman's group or something.

Cobb and Trever go to Mary's funeral to talk to Mary's friend. She was the one who sent the love letters that were in the toilet. They met in a bettered woman's shelter.

The cellmate's girlfriend that Cobb gave the 21k to gets arrested for passing marked bills from a bank robbery. Holy crap, doesn't that suck!

They tracked down "Mary" and she was from Ohio. She had 5 restraining orders on her husband in Ohio. When the local cops went to his work to talk to him, the secretary said he was on vacation in New Orleans.

Cobb talked to the girl he gave the money to. He pretty much convinced her not to turn him in. Boulet figured out the deal and told Cobb that after the current case he either had to turn himself in or Boulet would do it for him.

Boulet and Cobb visit the hotel where the ex-husband was staying and after throwing him on the ground, they arrest him. He denies everything. He has a new, battered wife and after giving her all the information, she admits that they weren't together the entire night on the night Mary died. Busted!

Cobb confesses to the Captain that he was the one who gave the other woman the 21k. But while Cobb is confessing, Boulet comes in and says he was the one who gave her them money. He said that he found the money while cleaning houses.

You never abandon your partner.

Boulet finally reads Charlie's personnel file. He heads over to a bar to have a beer with Charlie. Boulet buys him a beer and shoots a game of pool.

You never abandon your partner.

LewisC

K-Ville Season 1, Episode 2 Synopsis

I haven't watched episode 4 yet. I have it DVR'd. In the meantime, here are my thoughts about episode 2.

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.

Nice. The escapee (I think his name was Tim Dunlevy?) dumps the car in Metairie. The characters then talk about Kenner. Cool. JP Rocks. This is what I want in the show. More and more about the local area.

Corruption Cliche Alert. This is a major plot point.

Apparently, there is some obvious bad blood between NOPD and OPP. There's some crap about OPP keeping people in jail for years because of drunk and disorderly or spitting on a sidewalk. The escapees that were caught are ordered back into the sheriffs custody by a Mr. Deville, the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff.

They get to interview more rich folk. The escapees rich folk parents didn't know that their son was in jail for two years. He just happens to have a 100k trust fund. It's getting a little deep here.

BTW, there are some great shots on the lead in to advertisements. I really like the shot of the French Quarter and street performers.

Trevor and Boulet roust out the escapee's girlfriend (Kelly Burke) and she tells them the boyfriend's life is in danger but doesn't know why. Boulet gets a call; one of the inmates who was caught was killed in only two hours after being returned to OPP.

Marlin and Trevor go to OPP to do "further investigation". All they find in the investigation is some sheet music that Dunlevy wrote while in prison. Boulet takes a sheet.

They get to see where the alleged breakout occurred. They see the cell block Cobb was in when he was help in OPP and he has a flashback of the flood and the drowning of his cell mate.

While talking to Corrupt Carlson, Dunlevy calls the precinct house and gets patched through to Cobb, the only person he'll talk to. As they talk, as Dunlevy is about to give Cobb the scoop, prisoners walk through the caged walkaway and one of them jumps Cobb. Carlson pepper sprays Cobb and the prisoner. Cobb punches Carlson in the face.

The Deville is not amused. Cobb calls the sheriff and Carlson liars and says their stories don't match. Turns out the captives were on a work detail when they escaped. I knew the area they were in was not OPP. The area was the marshy area near airline. I used to go crawfishing out that way as a kid.

Best line of the show: If you tried to play this music it would sound like chicken sex.

Trevor and Boulet head out to the marshy area near Airline to look around. While there, Carlson is spying on them. This guy is trouble.

Trevor and Cobb go back to the precinct to interview girlfriend Kelly. Turns out, the chicken sex, sheet music was code for the girlfriend. They use the good cop/good cop on her to get her to talk. She does.

She gives up a bartender who is involved. They give the password and the bartender tells them Dunlevy is in a store room in back. Sure enough he is. Trevor heads back to talk to him. While Trevor is talking to Dunlevy, Carlson comes in to kill him. Boulet is right behind him and gets the drop on the bad guy (Carlson).

After a brief mexican standoff, Carlson shoots Boulet, Cobb shoots Carlson, Dunlevy takes off. Boulet's vest takes the hit. Boulet calls in help while Trevor goes on a foot chase after Dunlevy.

Trevor finds him and tells him to talk or get his head blown off. Dunlevy knows details of a company named "Shore" (Shell?) who does offshore drilling. Offshore drilling creates tons of toxic sludge. Dumping the sludge is expensive so the sheriff is using prisoners to dump barrels of it in the marsh.

Trevor believes him and lets him go.

In the debrief with the DA, Sheriff Deville stops in for a few words with Cobb. He threatens Cobb but it turns out Cobb already has friends retrieving the barrels of sludge which can then be tracked back to Shore and Deville. Very Pat.

It ends with Cobb visiting the grave of his dead cell mate. Cobb and Boulet walk off together.

So what do you think of the show so far? Worth watching? I've been hearing less complaining about accents and such but that might be that those people quit watching. Personally, I'm still enjoying it.

LewisC

K-Ville Pilot Recap

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.

At a night time fund raiser, we're introduced to a southern beauty, Christina DuBois, a New Orleans native of the uptown variety. She has dedicated herself to raising funds to help the city and bring the natives back. We also learn that her brother was killed in a bad part of town.

A big black SUV drives by and open up with automatic weapons. Marlin and Trevor's police car is blown up. Just another night in k-town. This time it becomes obvious that the shooters were not shooting to kill. They were shooting to scare.

The old partner, Charlie, comes back to make things right. He gives Marlin information that points towards men, men who work at the casino, who incidentally work for Christine DuBois' father. These men are with the Blackriver security group; gulf war vets. Charlie wants to be a cop again.

The bad guys send a message to Martin. They put a hose in his window. I know that would freak me out. The casino/blackriver guys get arrested.

Best one-line of the show: There are more loose ends here than in a whorehouse.

From this point on it's a pretty pat detective show. The Blackriver guys were really working for uptown girl. She was angry about her brother's death and did not want "those people" moving back in.

A nice little car chase ensues when the blackriver guys decide to take out uptown girl to protect themselves. Ex-partner Charlie just happens to be on the road during the car chase and crashes the into the bad guys SUV. He's injured in the crash and is kidnapped by the bad guys.

Said bad guys take off and head to the port where a helicopter is waiting. Charlie is dumped, while in a car, into the river. Boulet freezes and Trevor has to rescue Charlie. Boulet unfreezes and wraps a chain around the helicopter so that they can't take off. Good guys win.

Oh yeah, the new partner, Trever Cobb? He's a really a con who is trying to change his life around. He's secretly a New Orleans boy.

The End of Episode 1

Best Parts: Seeing so much of the city. Seeing people living, working, having fun, etc. Knowing that the rest of the world now knows that there is no standing water in New Orleans.

Worst Parts: Marlin Boulet only has two expressions: anger and WTF. Story is somewhat cliche. Characters need to build up.

Summary: It's a new show and needs a few episodes to find its feet. I'll be watching.

Question to any readers: Do you like a post with this much detail for each episode or do you think it's just overkill? Please let me know.

LewisC

K-Ville Hits Australia

I ran across an article from Australia in The Age called K-ville. I guess it takes a few weeks before US shows make it to the Aussie shores. Does it piss off Australians with people call them Aussies?

Anyway, the author has some good words for the show:

Now comes K-Ville, a drama series of considerable significance, for not only is it getting here swiftly - three weeks after its US premiere - but it represents a decision by NBC to invest more than $1 million a week into the battered New Orleans economy by shooting a major cop show entirely on location there.

I have to agree that Fox did take a chance putting the show in New Orleans and I am glad they did. The city could really use the money.

He also makes a good point about some of the hypocritical resentment from locals who complain about the show actually showing crime (it IS a crime drama):

The New York Times has reported concerns among the residents of New Orleans about a cop show that gives priority to a post-Katrina crime wave, while playing down the positive elements of recovery. However, there were six murders in the city on the night NBC filmed the fundraiser party scene.

Anyway, it's good to see some info about K-Ville from foreign lands. It will be interesting to see how rating are.

LewisC

K-Ville Interview with an NOPD Cop

The Morning News, tag line "Black and White and Read All Over", has a very good interview by Sarah Hepola. What It Means to Miss New Orleans. The interview is with Lt Bryant Wininger, a PANO VP. My dad was a member of PANO before he died.

Anyway, this is a great interview. It's huge but well worth the read. I find it hard that an active duty cop talked this freely.

Some of the QA:

Q: New Orleans has this legacy as a corrupt town—

A: Oh yeah, we’re corrupt as hell. Jim Bernazzani, he’s the special agent in charge of the FBI in New Orleans, now he’s a guy who just speaks the truth. And he said “Look, we got corruption in Boston. The difference between Boston and New Orleans is, in Boston, they skim a little off the top and give the rest to the people. In New Orleans, they take the milk, they steal the container, then they go looking for the cow.” [laughs]

On the desertion of some officers:

Q: So you have no sympathy? I mean, even with these guys worried about their families?

A: Absolutely not. When I was packing my bags, when I was getting my wife ready to leave, she said, “You’ve done 30 years. Why are you going?” The storm was the size of the Gulf. I told her: I ain’t doing it for the mayor, I ain’t doing it for the people of New Orleans, I’m not doing it for the chiefs, I’m doing it for the guy next to me, because I might be able to save him. The guy next to me does care about me. I have no pity for the deserters. There are a lot of stories about officers who left who were probably taken care of, and if I could prove it, I would be in front of the senate committee.

I think that's how my dad would have felt (being part of the NOPD). I have a cousin who is a cop in Kenner. From talking to him, that's pretty much how he felt. He waded through water to protect and serve. He spent days not even knowing if his house still existed.

This is an interview well worth reading. It's not just a K-ville interview.

LewisC

K-Ville Season 1, Episode 3

I finally got around to watching K-Ville. I had it on DVR. I think it's going to be on again tonight. I have heard (i.e. read on blogs), that the third episode was going downhill. I don't think so. I enjoyed it even more than the first two. The characters are really starting to mesh.

In this episode, a city council member, an ex-DA, is found murdered. He's fished out of the water in a fairly gross scene, actually.

A woman's fingernail that is stuck to him leads to a New Orleans specialty shop. This part takes a leap of faith. The color of the nail is specially mixed, is made by a single shop in New Orleans, and Boulet's wife happens to be able to ID it with a quick look. The scene shows some of the humor of the show that I like, but the premise is a bit of a stretch.

Ultra hottie, Lyndsie Swann was a mentoree of the ex-DA. In a bit of dialog, we find that the DA was trying to turn some flooded neighborhoods into parks instead of rebuilding them. Boulet argues with her that the reason people haven't returned is that they don't even have the basic necessities to return. I agree but I wouldn't argue with her. She is hot!

Anyway, the fingernail eventually leads to a whore house and Adrienne Barbeau. Ms Barbeau is an old school hottie from way back. I had the hots for her about the time she made SwampThing. Yowza!

Anyway, as Boulet and Cobb are harassing the clientèle, the Capt shows up and gives them the boot. Turns out one of the ladies in the house is a confidential informant called a CI.

The hardy boys continue investigating and turn up the dead hooker who owned the fingernail. They also turn up a mostly naked guy in pantyhose and a ball choker hanging off the patio. The leads start piling up!

Meanwhile, a loony toon lawyer gets into a shootout with the NOPD from his bedroom window. Turns out he thought the cops were gang bangers in disguise. It also turns out that he is a hold out in one of the neighborhoods that the ex-DA (the dead guy) wanted to turn into a park. Hmmmmmm.

Of course this guy is so smart, he makes terroristic threats on his own law firm stationary. To the dead Ex-DA no less. This is another moment that you may want to suspend disbelief.

I'm going to cut to the chase here. The ex-DA, who wanted to make parks, was working with the gang to chase the holdouts out of the neighborhoods.

The Capt's CI is really a daughter replacement for him. There are a couple of emotional scenes that I thought were really well done in this story arc. Anyway, turns out the daughter replacement is a bad girl and she was the one who killed the ex-DA. The dead hooker wouldn't give up bad girls location to the gangsters so she was whacked.

There is a nice gun battle at the end (did you see that coming?) and the capt arrests his daughter replacement and the head of the gang.

It ends on a sentimental note with the Capt calling his real daughter.

There was also a sort of tie-in story arc of Boulet trying to see his daughter in some kind of school show. He makes just after it ends. Baby girl is happy though and they go off to get ice cream. I really don't need to ever hear Anthony Anderson sing again.

This is a fun show. If you are looking for reality based entertainment, watch survivor or kid nation. If you want to enjoy a humorous, fantasy, crime drama based in New Orleans, tune into K-Ville. Like good gumbo, it just keeps getting better and better.

What is K-Ville? Why is New Orleans called K-Ville?

Two questions that I have been asked and have been seeing in forums.

K-Ville is a new series coming in September starring Blake Shields, Cole Hauser, Maximiliano Hernandez, Anthony Anderson, John Carroll Lynch & Tawny Cypress.

K-Ville is also a new name for New Orleans. Note that people who live in New Orleans, do not call it K-Ville.

Why is New Orleans called K-Ville? It means Katrinaville. I don't know who first coined the term but it was first used not long after Katrina hit.

Technically, I guess it could mean any place inundated by Katrina and that would include a large portion of the gulf coast. I typically hear it referring specifically to New Orleans, though.

A good description that I read some time back is in this article in the Guardian Unlimited, Hell and high water.

Katrina-ville is not just a trailer park. It is also a state of mind. It is a Checkhovian nightmare of bureacracy, corruption and insurance rip-offs that has plagued the region devastated by the storm and slowed reconstruction to a disgraceful crawl. It is of politicians unable to rise to the challenge. It is why New Orleans has still not unveiled a rebuilding plan. It is why $2bn of reconstruction funds have been wasted or stolen. It is the corruption that allowed 1,100 prison inmates to claim $10m in rental relief or saw renovations for an Alabama shelter eventually cost $416,000 per evacuee (more than the cost of a new home each).

The Music of K-Ville

Dave Walker at the T-P posted a good entry, Picking the music for 'K-Ville' isn't a big easy. Dave talks about how some of the music came about as well as how the K-Ville producers are trying to get it right.

It'll never fully satisfy locals, but the Fox network's New Orleans-set-and-shot cop show has pledged dedication to authenticity whenever it doesn't interfere with the series' performance as a business out in the greater Nielsen marketplace.

We've definitely seen that. I can't believe how bothered some New Orleanians are by the accents in the show. Sheeesh.

I didn't even realize that the K-Ville opening music was Dr John. He wrote it right after Katrina.

The show's opening-credits theme is built on a base track Dr. John and his band recorded mere days after the levees broke.

The song -- "Wade: Hurricane Suite: Aftermath" -- appeared on the benefit EP "Sippiana Hericane."

"This is right after Katrina, we did this," Dr. John said. "That's before Rita even happened, you know."

This is a good article. If you like Dr John, K-Ville or music in general, check it out.

LewisC

Simulated Gunfire and Explosions on St Charles

I read on 995FM.com, "K-Ville" Filming Affects St. Charles Avenue. Looks like K-Ville is doing a couple of days filming uptown.

There will be a brief period of simulated gunfire in the 2600 block of St. Charles Avenue between 10am and 4pm today.

Tomorrow, between 10am and 1pm there will be a simulated explosion.

Cool. Wish I could check that out.

LewisC

K-Ville Ad Rates

I found some interesting statistics on ad rates for various shows over at TVByTheNumbers.com. The article covers the costs of advertising a 30 second spot.

K-Ville is right about in the middle at $190k. American Idol is way up there at 700k. That isn't unexpected but I was surprised that Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Sunday Night Football all came in as more expensive than Heroes' 300k.

K-Ville is quite a bit more than some that surprised me like Smallville, Reapers and America's Top Model (my wife is addicted to this show). I don't watch Smallville but I did watch the premiere of Reapers and thought it was hilarious.