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***Spoiler Alert***
Episode 3: “God Is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Afraid to Laugh”

“God is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh” Voltaire

Also known as the episode in which Kevin Donnelly starts to become my favorite.

Here comes another major NBC fail – this episode was deemed “too violent” and wasn’t aired. Instead, it was put up on the NBC website to stream and was later available on iTunes. Let’s remember, this is 2007, and streaming just wasn’t much of a thing yet. So the show loses steam, and continuity, resulting in a really weird mashup of the episode with a Joey Ice Cream voice over at the beginning of episode 4 to fill in the gaps.

Episode 3 widens the lens on the Irish hold in Hell’s Kitchen, introducing Dokey Farrell, Huey’s brother, who now has effectively taken over Huey’s role in the neighborhood.  Dokey has a very different style than Huey, like chopping off people’s toes with an axe, and quickly comes to confrontation with Alo Onatero, Nicky and Vinnie’s new boss.

Meanwhile, Tommy made a deal with Frank, a local detective who has known the family for years, to book Jimmy and line up rehab. Jimmy’s hitting withdrawal pretty quickly, begging Kevin and Tommy to get him out, and while Tommy holds his line, Kevin wavers, caught as usual between the two.

This is the episode where Kevin Donnelly starts to steal the screen for me. A deeper dive on Kevin later, but he comes front and center with Joey to get bail money for Jimmy, and what ensues is absolutely hilarious but also low key genius?  

Jimmy convinces Kevin the only way out of jail, with no bail money, is to take out the witness to the truck boosting. This leads poor Kevin to meet with Joanie (Betsy Beutler), who we see for the first time, and this all comes to a head with the scene I believe is what NBC deemed “too violent”, involving a bus. Any more violent than Dokey chopping off appendages? Not really.  

Tommy’s dark side comes out as his desperation heightens to keep Sean in the ICU vs the ward, under the pressure of Helen. It pushes Tommy to the edge, his good side just beating out the dark side before he does something irrevocable. And, you know, Jenny had just absolutely crushed him that morning, so there’s that.  Plus the tension between Tommy and Mr. Reilly (Kevin Conway), he’s not having a good day.

Oh and by the way, I did watch this episode when it originally streamed on NBC, so at least I enjoyed the show to its fullest. And I would’ve missed the Kevin Donnelly fan train at an early stage.

Favorite Scene: Kevin and Tommy arguing after visiting Jimmy in jail, and Kevin taking a call from Helen.  Kevin Donnelly non-sarcasm sarcasm at its finest!

Soundtrack: The song chosen for the scene with Sean in the ward is a really eclectic but perfectly fitting choice for such a dire scene.  

“The Black Donnellys” is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and DVD.  Also available to stream, with extremely annoying and poorly placed commercial breaks, on the NBC app or NBC.com

At the time of posting, the episodes are still out of order on the NBC app and website, so Episode 4 = Episode 2, Episode 2 = Episode 3, Episode 3 = Episode 4. The title of each episode should reference the quote slide within the first 5 minutes of the episode.

Episode Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 4

Episode Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 2

Episode Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 1

Sleepers: “The Black Donnellys”