PUBLIC MORALS Cartoonish, But Good

Article originally published as PUBLIC MORALS Review on Seat42F.
 

TNT goes in a bit of a different direction with PUBLIC MORALS. A 1960s-set crime drama from Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan, The Brothers McMullen), it tells the tale of cops and robbers in New York City. It’s the Mad Men era, but this is the other side of the tracks, those lower income people who think the laws are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Does the series work?

Well, at first I was taken aback by the style. It’s very specific and consistent, but comes across as cartoonish. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, though. After watching the pilot, it is clear that the characters and plot are in this same vein, so the costumes and set decoration match the tone that the series is going for well. While PUBLIC MORALS is a hyper reality, no one ever said every TV show must be totally grounded.

The main reason I quickly got over my hesitation and embraced PUBLIC MORALS is because of the cast. Burns not only writes and directs, but stars as Terry Muldoon, who isn’t in charge, but is definitely the most defined force in this world, feeling totally authentic for the piece. Burns has surrounded himself with an excellent ensemble including Michael Rapaport (Justified), Robert Knepper (Prison Break), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Castle), Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives), Brian Dennehy (First Blood), Elizabeth Masucci (Shame), Timothy Hutton (Leverage), Wass Stevens (The Wrestler), Katrina Bowden (30 Rock), and more. Many of these supporting players are doing some of the best work I’ve ever seen from them, and those that already have impressive resumes feel like they get this project and meld in seamlessly.

Together, they create a complex world that thrives on shades of gray. As Burns says to his son, the line between hero and asshole is a thin one, with the cops substituting the letter of the law for their own moral code, and working hand in hand with the bad guys when the bad guys stay in line. There are a number of differing relationships between the characters, and PUBLIC MORALS does a good job of painting its reality in just that first hour.

Once introduced to the status quo, the show also spends little time upheaving it. A new officer joins the plain clothes force, and it’s hard to tell if he’s going to be on board with their schemes or a hindrance. Someone who seems like a main character in this initial installment is killed off at the end, which will surely shake up several of the other players and provide a driving force through the season.

PUBLIC MORALS isn’t as brilliantly groundbreaking or as beautifully artistic of many of the cable shows on the air, and it feels a bit strange to be praising it, as those high-quality, original dramas make up much of what I gravitate towards. TNT doesn’t really have any of those, so that’s not surprising. Not everything that happens is realistic, and while some of the story is a slow boil, there’s a lot of fast talking and bits of action, too, so it never gets boring. True Detective or The Killing, this is not.

However, the program knows what it is and makes the best example of the genre that it can, and there’s a lot to be said for that. When coupled with magnetic personalities that suck the viewer right into the world, I find little to complain about. Honestly, I went into this expecting little, and now plan on setting a season pass on my TiVo because I really want to find out what happens next. That’s just about all I can ask for from a pilot, and I look forward to seeing what they do with the rest of the season.

PUBLIC MORALS premieres Tuesday, August 25^th at 10 p.m. ET on TNT.

Leverage returns to finish second season

     TNT's hit drama Leverage returns tonight to air the final six episodes of their second season.  When the show first premiered, I likened it to a small screen version of Ocean's Eleven.  Each week a team of ex-crooks pulls off a con against someone that has done wrong and gives it back to the little guy.  High tech Robin Hoods, if you will.  It is one of the most interesting procedurals on television, but because each episode went pretty much the same, per the definition of 'procedural', I gave up watching it midway through season one.

     Recently, Turner sent me a screen of the summer finale from September and the first two episodes of the six about to air.  As it had been awhile since I watched the show, I popped them into the player.  It was as entertaining as I remembered.  Apparently, the first season was sort of like a stand alone miniseries, with an ending, but the team reformed for season two.  However, by the end of the summer episodes, one member of the team, Sophie (Gina Bellman, Coupling), has left.  She is still part of the main cast, and does appear in the premiere, but she is currently being temporarily replaced by her friend Tara, (Jeri Ryan, Star Trek: Voyager, Shark) who was in the summer finale.  Ryan is fantastic, already finding her groove with the rest of the team.  The one problem facing the series, besides coming up with new con ideas each week, is that Ryan is actually quite a bit better than Bellman, and it will be a disappointment when the former concludes her guest run and the latter returns to the show in her previous capacity.

     The rest of the main cast members are fantastic.  Timothy Hutton leads the group as Nate.  He is brilliant at slipping into different characters, and whoever did the original casting did right by the show by putting Hutton in the head seat.  Equally entertaining is Christian Kane (Angel, Close to Home) as Eliot, the muscle of the group.  Nerdy Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge, Friday Night Lights) and the beautiful, but emotionally stunted Parker (Beth Riesgraf) round out the team.  The end of the season will bring several new escapades, as the group takes on the fashion world, a medium, an Irish loan shark, and in the two part finale, a mayor obsessed with baseball.  Upcoming guest stars, besides Ryan, include Luke Perry and the return of the underrated Mark Sheppard's Sterling, who will help Nate try to get his ex-wife out of a Ukranian prison.

     If you are a fan of procedurals, and haven't discovered the show, it is worth checking out.  Leverage will air the next six Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on TNT, and a third season, consisting of fifteen episodes, has been ordered.