K-Ville

I stopped watching the Tigers game last night at 9:00 to watch a new series called K-Ville. There's no way I'm letting a good show get away from me this year like I let Heroes escape my notice last year during the pennant race. Besides, the Tigers lost on a walk-off home run which all but sealed their fate for this year.

K-Ville is about two New Orleans police officers, trying to make a difference in the post-Katrina recovery. Anthony Anderson plays Marlin Boulet, a police officer whose family has left the city for Atlanta while he remains behind to try to help his neighborhood come back from disaster. His daughter has nightmares and is terrified whenever it rains. Cole Hauser plays Trevor Cobb, an ex-army soldier freshly returned from the Middle East with unknown ties to the Crescent City and a hidden past.

I really like this show. The accents are right, the terminology and slang right ("How's your mother and dem?"), and best of all, it's filmed on location. My wife, who lived in New Orleans for several years, vouched for the stuff I didn't know. On last night's episode, one of the crime scenes was on the concrete balcony across from St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. Magi and I stood on that very spot not five years ago. It was very cool. It's fun seeing places with which you are very familiar as part of a TV drama.

The first episode, like most, essentially introduces you to the characters and their motivations, and this one does it very well. The plot was a little predictable, with the bad guys trying to profit from the disaster, but I'm very forgiving of pilots. This one sets the stage for greater stories to be told. I give it a big thumbs up.

The only problem is that it's on FOX, and since it's a good show it will probably be canceled after the initial six episodes.