***Spoiler Alert***
Episode 5: “Lies”
“For a moment the lie becomes the truth.” Dostoevsky
Also known as the episode in which Tommy steals a casserole and Kevin has to eat bread for dinner.
Wooo boy, Samson is not a dude you want to reject after sleeping with him. His face when Jenny says there is someone else is not good. And Jenny’s talk with the priest? Hilarious, yet you know “Teach” is a scumbag husband (and dead, but Jenny doesn’t know) when your priest suggests an annulment. (more…)
***Spoiler Alert***
Episode 4: The World Will Break Your Heart
“To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart”. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Definitely my favorite quote slide of the show.
AKA the episode in which Kevin Donnelly and Joey Ice Cream steal kosher wine for an Irish wake, while Jimmy’s making a birdhouse.
We kick off episode 4 with Jimmy in a bar, saying that his brothers killed for him. This how we get the lead into the condensed Joey Ice Cream voice over about what happened in the highly important, yet unaired, Episode 3. Has my hatred for NBC come through yet? I’m not sure.
Cut to Kate Farrell, Huey’s widow and a fantasy for all the neighborhood boys, showing up at the Donnelly door, nearly killing Tommy by asking to hold Huey’s wake at the Firecracker. The flashback scene of the brothers and Joey looking at pictures supposedly of Kate reminds me SO much of the Sleepers scene with the four boys (Jonathan Tucker included) looking at the Rockettes through a hole in a window. Ah, young boys, they were so … industrious. And now, there is the internet. (more…)
***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. (more…)
***Spoiler Alert***
Episode 2: “A Stone of the Heart”
“Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart” – W.B. Yeats, Easter 1916
Also known in my mind as the “RIP Tommy’s Jacket” episode.
Something I love about the structure of the show is the quotes within the first few minutes of each episode, starting with episode 2. Each quote relates to the episode title. Kind of feels like you’re watching a play, with each quote setting up the next act.
Episode 2 finds Tommy and Kevin trying to cover up their involvement the murders of Louie, Sal, and Huey. RIP Tommy’s jacket from the epic Minetta Tavern hallway scene in Episode 1, which burns along with the rest of their clothes to get rid evidence. Kevin didn’t burn his jacket though, ’cause it’s his favorite, and I think we can all relate to Kevin in that moment. (more…)
***Spoiler Alert***
Episode 1: Pilot
What I loved about this show when it first aired is we jump right in from the start of the pilot. No build up or introductory first episode. 2007 was heavy in the midst of the 20+ episode season era, and this was unusual.
The condensed formatting of The Black Donnellys, which fit well as a mid-season hiatus candidate (and then bumped back a month early to replace a failing show, another NBC nail in the coffin) required a quick jump into the deep end. But, given that it was supposed to air the previous fall, its hard to say if 13 episodes would’ve completed the first season, or if there was a chance to do another 10-12 episodes had NBC not fucked up and it was more successful.
Detective 1: “So where are the bodies?”
Prisoner: “Oh man, these guys are my friends.”
Detective 1: “Here’s the deal, Joey. You tell us where the bodies are, how they got there, you’ll stay in solitary, nice and safe. You lie, you go to general population, where more people than I can count want to see you dead.”
Detective 2: “Where are the bodies?”
Joey: “There’s two things that happened to Jimmy Donnelly that made him turn out the way he did …”
30 seconds into the pilot, haven’t even hit the opening credits, and we’re in. It’s brilliant. Who’s Joey? What bodies? Jimmy Donnelly? (more…)
Let’s take it back to early 2007, it’s my senior of college, final semester. Deeply entrenched in the indie music scene (I miss you, 2000’s), I was spending a lot time between college, Boston, and my beloved New York City. An interesting era as lower Manhattan climbed from the ashes, and small clubs became victim again to the relentless progress machine that is NYC. But that’s for another day.
This was also the infancy of on demand video services (beyond PPV) and online streaming, tapping into the beginnings of the yet unknown that Netflix would capitalize on.
So, as every TV worshipper does, I planned much of my week around shows I couldn’t miss, agonizing over which to prioritize if time slots were doubled up, and utilized the quickly becoming ancient VHS tape to record anything I’d miss, on my little TV with its built in video tape deck and timer features.
I’d heard rumor of a new show set in Hell’s Kitchen, an NYC neighborhood with a long list of real and fictional Irish Mob and Italian Mafia dramas playing out in its streets for years. (more…)
headphones are on 