The Black Donnellys

For a network television station, NBC has just found her new gem. As a Sopranos fan, I was a bit skeptical about watching the show. But Paul Haggis' genius strikes again and this time its on the small screen. Now that The Sopranos is finishing its final season in April, fans of the show need a substitute, and I highly recommend The Black Donnellys is just as good. I thought it would be hard to show that world without swear words, but the show is not just about that side of it. Its a show about brothers who love one another and come from 'that neighborhood', not Irish mobsters that happen to be brothers.

In conclusion, watch the damn show!

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.

Going just by the pilot - excellent! I thought the story'd be off to a bit of a slow, boring start, but it took off like a flare, from the first few shots, never flagging, never letting up. The grittiness of the look, the timing, the pace, the story line, the dialogue -- terrific, just what you'd expect from people who made "Crash." They didn't disappoint. The acting is also very good, except Keith Nobbs, who plays Joey Ice Cream: entirely too much of a clichéd motor-mouthed overacting little weasel. If he's going to continue providing the narration, it can be a detriment to the overall quality, as it was in the pilot, hence I gave it only 9 stars out of 10.

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.