The Black Donnellys

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.)

It's early to say this but judging by the first two episodes this show is going to be something special. I love this show. Now, granted I was at first interested in it because the main characters are Irish, as I am. But this show is about so much more than just being Irish, or even just the mob/organized crime. It's like the tagline for the show says.. "Family above all" and how far one brother is willing to go to protect his brothers. Will he put himself first? Or will he save his brothers? Some people say this show is like The Departed (Which I loved, so I'm not saying anything bad about the Departed)

It's only like The Departed because 1.) The main characters are Irish. 2.) It features some organized crime (but mostly dis-organized) and violence. This really is an excellent show. Not many shows have the balls to put so much effort into a pilot. Pilot episodes are usually those boring shows that set up the story but have nothing to them. This series pilot was intriguing and actually had a plot and trusted you to keep up, which is something most pilots wouldn't even dream of doing. The second episode just proved how great this show is. Not only is it violent and all - but it has a dark sense of humor. Which is great, I personally find it very entertaining.

So here's what I'll say... Watch the Black Donnellys. Give this show a chance. This is my new favorite TV show, and if NBC does something RIDICULOUS and cancels this amazing show I will forever give up watching TV because this is a great series and I can't wait to see how it unfolds.

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!

If there is something Paul Haggis is good at, it's storytelling.

The pilot was as captivating as a pilot can hope to be. The story begins to come together after the first ten minutes of an 'introduction' and it's an entertaining ride with thought behind it.

This casting is good, the characters have plenty of depth to play with and the writing is, well, Paul Haggis.

There's a lot of potential and I hope we see a great run from the Black Donnellys. It would be a pity if this goes the Arrested Development route.

Though, this is a very different show.

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.