The Black Donnellys

This show needs a reboot ASAP I miss this show so much. Come on amazon, netflix and hulu?!?!?!?!

The Black Donnellys is a return to form for Paul Haggis, the show's creator and executive producer. The lead characters are four Irish-American brothers in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Police, unions, and mob families interact in complex ways that recalls Haggis' short-lived television masterpiece EZ Streets. In The Black Donnellys, Haggis creates an engaging story of family loyalty, desperation, sacrifice and redemption. The Donnellys' world is not as dark and desperate as the unnamed rust belt city of EZ Streets, but the Donnellys are nonetheless bound by history to a path filled with conflict and drama. I found the story believable and engaging. The twists of the story reinforced the character development. Few shows manage such deft intertwining of plot and character. Most must either be characterized as plot-driven or character-driven. The Black Donnellys uses both artistic barrels, with stunning accuracy.

Based on the series Pilot, The Black Donnellys is highly recommended. NBC has a full order of 13 episodes. (The pilot is available through Netflix before the television premier scheduled for March 5, 2007 @ 10:00 PM Eastern, 9:00 PM Central.)

I don't know what the problem is with this show.. that everyone seems to hate it, but I watched it, and I thought that it was very very good. The dialogue was good, the premise was dark, and of course, unbelievable. But seriously, what are the hit shows on today... Heroes? Lost? Desperate Housewives?, doesn't TV thrive on the unbelievable? I mean, why else would we watch something that could be going on nextdoor? Its just not that interesting. As for the comment that the good comments were just boosters from the show, the argument could be made that all the bad comments are from people that want to see the show fail. This is just as possible as boosters being on IMDb. Paul Haggis didn't get all of those Oscar noms for nothing. So heres to hoping that it stays on the air.

The first time I heard about this show was through all the ads on NBC and I just thought "dear God not another stupid TV show coming on the air for me to not watch" without really paying much attention. Then, the day it was set to premiere I heard a little more about it. The whole "brothers fighting for brothers" thing intrigued me. It kind of reminded me of "Four Brothers" (one of my personal favorite movies). So I decided to tune in. And boy, was I glad I did that.

This show is great! Finally, a little action and originality coming to TVs. You can tell that the writers wrote many movies just from the way its written, GREAT! The whole "Joey-Ice Cream telling the story" thing is quite original and with a little humor added into it.

Even though there's only been two episodes I can tell that I am definitely going to be tuning in for all the rest there is to come no matter how many that my be.

To break it all down, if you love movies/shows with action, drama, violence, with a little humor, etc. then you'll love this show. And if not, try to give it a shot, you probably won't regret it!

I eagerly looked forward to the second show, but was somewhat disappointed. It was extremely grisly with very little story line and not the humor that The Sopranos use to get around abject violent acts. I still will give it more time, however, because I liked the premise of the show, it's much more like a cable show than not. I'm sick of most network broadcasts and "reality TV". This series shows promise so I was somewhat taken a back by the gore and the gruesomeness of the body disposal--YIKES!!! There are others who have problems with the fact that they don't use gratuitous foul language on the show as tough guys like these brothers would use in real life, but I never even noticed the 'F' bomb missing from their discourse. The missing profanity never spoiled the gritty reality of the show for me. In fact, movies like the Departed really use too much of it, not that it bothers me, but it can grate on one's "last nerve" after a while hearing it over and over again.

I'll be back next week to check it out.