PERHAPS if I hadn’t been a volunteer driver of a trac tor-trailer that brought relief supplies to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I might not find Fox’s newest police drama, “K-Ville,” quite so exploitive.
But I was, and I do.
The drama, which premieres tonight, takes place in the ravaged city they now call “K-Ville,” short for “Katrina-ville.”
The first episode starts with footage of the actual horrific disaster, which got me thinking that this show would be better than a run-of-the-mill cop drama. Wrong.
Like earlier series set in and around 9/11, the concept of making hay (or dough) on a tragedy so soon afterwards makes me uncomfortable.
I assume the creator, Jonathan Lisco, who breathlessly writes in the publicity material that he rode with a NOPD SWAT team as they served warrants on high-risk offenders in 2006, believes that he’s bringing the disaster that still is New Orleans to the American public.
And if the show did more than use the devastated city as a back-drop, he would be. But after a few minutes, it becomes clear that this is yet another formulaic cop drama off the “Lethal Weapon” template.
The premise is that two cops – a veteran black New Orleans cop, Marlin (Anthony Anderson), and a new white cop with a mysterious past, Trevor (Cole Hauser) – are partnered the first day the new guy is on the job.
As far as this show goes, the biggest change since the hurricane is that it apparently wiped out everyone’s N’awlins accents. Everyone here speaks like they live in California or something – probably because in real life they do.
The new partners are assigned to stand watch at a New Orleans revival fund-raiser thrown by a local rich deb at a local bar. Why the captain (John Carroll Lynch) sends two detectives in plain clothes instead of officers in uniform – again, I can’t say
Of course, there is a shooting and, of course, it all goes much, much deeper than the local New Orleans rich girl.
Marlin is ( Ã la Danny Glover) the committed family man, while Trevor (the Mel Gibson part) is the single guy with the gloomy past.
Together, of course, they will form a unique bond.
Marlin is more of the rogue cop (and what’s a police drama without a rogue?) who was abandoned by his first partner in the midst of the hurricane – when many cops in New Orleans went AWOL.
I’ll warn you about a big twist at the end of the episode, but it’s so unrealistic, it’s downright silly.
It’s the acting that saves the show – Anderson and Hauser are especially good.
But you can’t make a formula drama out of a disaster that defied all logic.
K-Ville
Monday night at 9 on Fox