Graceland

The series must have been meant to go at least a season more because it had a horrible ending. So unsatisfying. Just left me dangling.

Despite the title (the show is only in the most tangential sense Elvis related, thank goodness), we felt we had to watch at least the pilot because of the presence of admirable Broadway actors Aaron Tveit (NEXT TO NORMAL & CATCH ME IF YOU CAN), Daniel Sunjata (TAKE ME OUT) and Courtney Vance (SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION).

Vance, as the head of the FBI at Tveit's character's graduation, may not prove an ongoing character (inexplicably for a personality of his calibre, IMDb doesn't even mention him in the Pilot Episode at present!), but he SHOULD be as he serves as a solid grounding for a location and character heavy tale of young cross-agency enforcement agents living and working out of a luxurious beach front headquarters seized from an Elvis-fanatic drug lord (hence the name for the house and series) before the series ever begins.

The true leads in the story about drug enforcement and possibly the investigation of the enforcers are Tveit as the young hotshot just out of training academy with top scores and unlimited potential and Sunjata as the experienced but still charismatically young agent (one of the few with Academy scores exceeding Tveit's own) who is to field train Tveit. The hour and 15 minute pilot was languorously paced but ultimately got in its share of moments of excitement among the hot locations (was the opening shot really intended to evoke the opening shot of THE USUAL SUSPECTS?) and potentially enjoyable cross currents of character relationships in the unusually large ensemble.

The USA Network has made a name for itself with quirky character "mysteries" which entertain on many levels and, despite an unfortunate European-style preference for ultra-short "seasons," allowing the well ensembles time to develop followings. Given that time, with slightly tighter story telling, GRACELAND should be another in a popular line-up of lightly challenging USA entertainment. It has something for everyone between beach skin, vicarious luxury, post collegiate kidding, an underlying frisson of mistrust and dark underpinnings and the promise of developing character interplay among the large cast (who will turn out to be bad guys beyond stealing from the communal refrigerator? Who will mate with whom?).

In some ways GRACELAND looks like it wants to be a cross between the BIG BROTHER HOUSE and TRAFFIC. If they can get the mix to gel, and they seem to be off to a good start despite one or two moments which strain credibility - but which may actually be parts of the story supposedly "based on fact," they could have something very special. At the very least it's worth a second look.

Graceland was such an underrated show that I had a blast watching. Graceland is the name of a beachfront house that was seized by the FBI and had become an undercover house for different departments of law enforcement (FBI, DEA, US Customs). It follows young FBI agent Mike Warren (Aaron Tveit) as he's put into Graceland and thrown into the fire of an undercover assignment. One of the other reasons he's there is to spy on his mentor Paul Briggs (Daniel Sunjata) to see if he's gone dirty. I really enjoyed all three seasons of this show and still mad to this day that it ended. The cast (Tveit, Sunjata, Serinda Swan, Manny Montana, Brandon Jay McLaren, Vanessa Ferlito) all do an excellent job. Give this show a try, I promise you'll have fun watching it!

Where to start? Everyone lies to everyone else about everything, which is fine as long as they stay focused on their cases, but when their lies and romantic entanglements interfere with their ability to maintain plot structure, we're all screwed. I'm one of those people who enjoys marathoning where TV shows are concerned. I stay focused for a few days or week and it's over. I move from scene to scene without commercial interruption and see if everything holds together. In Graceland, it's a study in human entropy. Everything is in a state of complete and utter chaos with little resolution without massive bloodshed, both physically and metaphorically. The price the audience pays for restitution is far too steep for the time one spends pushing through it. The series was a great concept, and I am completely convinced that had it not gotten so incredibly off track with the sub-plotting tied to, you guessed it: lies! it would have had a long run. The premise of inter-agency people working under one roof is way out there cool, but not at the expense of melodrama on a grand mal scale. I wish i could rewrite the entire damn thing from the moment it got off track and see what would have happened to all those viewers who decided to look elsewhere.

Something this layered and suspenseful that is based on actual events doesn't come along often and when it does it should be given more than 3 seasons to establish a fan base. Yes some of it is incredulous but there would have to be some of that to offset the reality and gore of violence that is based on reality. Add to that a fine cast of actors and you get a winning combination. Such a shame it was canceled to make room for something fluffy. It's hard to understand why this wasn't renewed, especially given the cliffhanger at the end of Season 3, along with unfinished story lines that would have been exciting to explore. Why is it that once you're hooked on the drama and the characters a network decides to cancel? I don't understand why networks don't query their audiences before making these decisions! There's a reason Idol and other talent shows allow audiences (customers) to vote!!!