While there has been no shortage of LA noir dramas on the big screen (“Chinatown,” “Mulholland Drive,” “LA Confidential”), it’s a genre that’s been largely ignored on TV.
Until now.
“Mob City,” created by Frank Darabont (“The Green Mile,” “The Walking Dead”), is based on John Buntin’s (non-fiction) book, “LA Noir,” which detailed the epic battle between mobster Mickey Cohen and LA police chief William Parker. It’s yet another take on mobsters, crooked cops, crime and corruption in ’40s-era LA.
Airing on TNT as an “event” series over three weeks (and six episodes) starting Dec. 4, “Mob City” needs to grab your attention right off the bat. It doesn’t quite succeed in that department, but the opener does conclude with the promise of more interesting times ahead.
The story opens in 1925 New York City — where young mobsters Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Sid Rothman make their bones — and, after some quick exposition, fast-forwards to 1947 LA.
There we meet LA police officer Joe Teague (series star Jon Bernthal), an ex-Marine legendary for his exploits on Iwo Jima during World War II.
Tipped off by a message left in his apartment-lobby mailbox, Teague visits a downtown jazz club, where’s he approached by comedian Hecky Nash (Simon Pegg), who’s in trouble with the mob over gambling debts and is, at the same time, blackmailing a high-ranking mobster. He offers Teague $1,000 to protect him while he meets the mobster’s henchmen at night, in an oil field, to swap his incriminating info for a big-bucks payoff.
Meanwhile, LA mayor Bowron (Gregory Itzin, so memorable from “24”) is promising to wipe out corruption in the city — which is music to the ears of high-ranking cop William Parker (Neal McDonough). He sees Teague’s moonlighting job with Hecky as a chance to arrest some mobsters, propel the mayor to reelection and, in effect, seal his own fate as the city’s new police commissioner.
The screener provided by TNT asks that we not reveal any significant plot points, so I’ll abide by that request. Suffice it to say there are a few twists and turns — and several interesting characters introduced in the opener.
What “Mob City” lacks, however, is a sense of atmosphere that can’t be created simply through snappy lines of dialogue — including Hecky’s description of LA as beautiful from afar, but “up close, it’s all gutter.”
That’s all well and good, but there’s no tangible sense of the city’s seediness, at least in the opener, which could have easily taken place in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago or any major city. Stay tuned.