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Where are the bodies?
All the way through tonight’s premiere episode of The Black Donnellys, I was worried that I’d never remember all the characters and their relationships and status in the neighborhood hierarchy. There were hoods and cops, Irish and Italians, way too many to keep track of. Thank goodness for an ending that simplified things for me.

Now I’ll be sure to keep watching, because I really like the story of small time hoodlums in over their heads. The Donnellys are four brothers, three ankle deep in the mob and one straight arrow trying to look out for everyone else. It turns out, big surprise here, that you can’t escape the deepest roots of your family tree, or the worst thing you’ve ever done. The show humanizes mobsters in a different way from The Sopranos, and the characters are appealing in the different way they approach their line of work. Some are enthusiastic, others reluctant, and all have the depth and complexity you’d want to see if you’re going to turn a new show, introduced at the end of February, into appointment television.

Of course, the first episode was written by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, so it was probably going to be pretty good. We’ll see how things go from here.

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