Big Easy a toxic mess for cops in 'K-Ville'
August 30, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television critic
So the new Fox drama "K-Ville" probably doesn't sound fun to you. It's about cops and their families dealing with post-Katrina chaos.
My favorite scene is where a cop jokes that "C.S.I." is on the way to a crime scene. Then he laughs, "C.S.I., ha-ha," because come on, this is weepy, seepy New Orleans, not fancy Las Vegas.
The lead cop, Marlin, is played by Anthony ("Barbershop") Anderson, who prepared for his role by shadowing cops on duty.
"To ride around with SWAT at 2 o'clock in the morning, serving high-risk warrants in one of the worst projects in the nation, is hairy," Anderson says.
His eyes look briefly haunted.
"They are operating out of, basically, oversized FEMA trailers with no bathrooms, no running water. ... They literally have to leave their facility to go to a restaurant or a hotel across the street to use restrooms."
"K-Ville's" heavy tone and sober acting capture enough of that essence to make it interesting. The drama does toss in crazy plots about nefarious villains. But I'm a bit forgiving of melodramatic parts, since it's on Fox and not the grittier FX.
The dialogue digs in well enough, like when Marlin's wife explains why she wants to leave. "Half this city still reeks of mold and toxic sludge," she says. "The schools are even worse. The crime -- baby, it's not the same place, and it is never gonna be."
That's what my family is doing. They're striving onward like crazy people with their "Katrina cough." Two years later, government and insurance money has finally all arrived for my mom, 67, just at the moment she exhausted her life's savings.
Thankfully, my family moved out of FEMA trailers, which were polluted with formaldehyde. No wonder Mom went to the hospital so much. She hasn't been sick since she stopped "living" in that thing.
It figures someone sent formaldehyde to "The City That Care Forgot." Too many jerkfaces outside of New Orleans want to embalm it, even though people like my mom, sister, niece, brother, sister-in-law and nephew are striving for a basic human right: to merely exist.
delfman@suntimes.com
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television critic
So the new Fox drama "K-Ville" probably doesn't sound fun to you. It's about cops and their families dealing with post-Katrina chaos.
My favorite scene is where a cop jokes that "C.S.I." is on the way to a crime scene. Then he laughs, "C.S.I., ha-ha," because come on, this is weepy, seepy New Orleans, not fancy Las Vegas.
The lead cop, Marlin, is played by Anthony ("Barbershop") Anderson, who prepared for his role by shadowing cops on duty.
"To ride around with SWAT at 2 o'clock in the morning, serving high-risk warrants in one of the worst projects in the nation, is hairy," Anderson says.
His eyes look briefly haunted.
"They are operating out of, basically, oversized FEMA trailers with no bathrooms, no running water. ... They literally have to leave their facility to go to a restaurant or a hotel across the street to use restrooms."
"K-Ville's" heavy tone and sober acting capture enough of that essence to make it interesting. The drama does toss in crazy plots about nefarious villains. But I'm a bit forgiving of melodramatic parts, since it's on Fox and not the grittier FX.
The dialogue digs in well enough, like when Marlin's wife explains why she wants to leave. "Half this city still reeks of mold and toxic sludge," she says. "The schools are even worse. The crime -- baby, it's not the same place, and it is never gonna be."
That's what my family is doing. They're striving onward like crazy people with their "Katrina cough." Two years later, government and insurance money has finally all arrived for my mom, 67, just at the moment she exhausted her life's savings.
Thankfully, my family moved out of FEMA trailers, which were polluted with formaldehyde. No wonder Mom went to the hospital so much. She hasn't been sick since she stopped "living" in that thing.
It figures someone sent formaldehyde to "The City That Care Forgot." Too many jerkfaces outside of New Orleans want to embalm it, even though people like my mom, sister, niece, brother, sister-in-law and nephew are striving for a basic human right: to merely exist.
delfman@suntimes.com
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