I’ve been seeing ads for the new USA version of Kojak with Ving Rhames as the title character. I have a bit of a soft spot for Mr. Rhames and am interested to see how he does. It’s not on for another ~3 hours for me, but I have to say I’m quite excited about. Any one else going to watch?
I tivoed it but haven’t watched it yet.
Let me know what you think of it when you do watch it. I just finished and I really liked it. I just love Ving Rhames and he’s quite good in this role.
I watched it. I wasn’t terribly impressed. A show like this has to pass two tests. The first: How does it stand as a mystery show? The crime in this episode was interesting. Someone is murdering prostitutes with children. Okay, haven’t seen that before. The next part of this test is how the crime is solved. Ever since the premiere of Law and Order, the bar has been raised on this part of the test. I remember watching Magnum PI and shows like it where the crime was solved through “intuition” and dumb luck, or through the bad guy implicating himself in some stupid manner. Law and Order made things more realistic, IMHO, be makming the detectives follow the evidence and then confront the guy. To me, Kojak failed the second part of this test. While they DID use evidence to find the guy, it only took them about 5 minutes to do this. They didn’t follow any leads, they didn’t really discuss the case. They didn’t analyze the evidence.I figured out almost immediately who the killer was (I mean, I knew it was going to be a person with the particular issue with prostitutes with children). They had two hours for this, and resolved the crime in 5 minutes. It took longer to resolve the secondary crime (1/2 hour)
The second test for a show like this is the character. Shows like Kojak rely on the likability and believability of the main guy. Ving Rhames is a good actor. I like him. But who the hell is Kojak, exactly? He starts out by putting his gun to the head of the guy in the car. The man’s surrender seemed like a load of crap. The surrender of the killer was a little more believable. I’m supposed to believe a man can rise to the level of lieutenant in NYC by ignoring simple negotiating procedure? Then, he says things like “We need to get this guy off my streets.” Who talks like that? My streets? Then he assaults the uncooperative neighbor of the murdered woman. Lawsuit, anyone? Okay, so Kojak’s a hard-ass? Well, for the next 2 hours we see what a softy the guy is. He bends the law to get a convicted man released from prison early. The scenes with the children were nice, if implausible. Then, he embraces vigilantism on the part of the former marine. And he was appeared to be taking steps to cover it up too. I can’t help but think the whole rogue-cop thing doesn’t really work anymore. At least not on episodic tv.
I just don’t buy that any of this could ever happen. Kojak ultimately fails both tests. Which is unfortunate, because I think TV is ready for a more character-driven crime show. Homicide showed you could have drama in realistic situations.
I was really looking forward to this - I always liked the old Telly Savalas show, and I love Ving Rhames as an actor. I was not impressed with the pilot, but I’m going with the theory that the pilot doesn’t always set the tone for the run of the show. I’ll watch it a few more times before I have a real opinion.
I like Kojak’s DA (?) girlfriend for a variety of reasons - she’s cute, she’s sexy, she’s a potentially good role model for Hispanic women in that she’s smart and successful but still retains some “street” cred. I’m not buying the costuming on her though - what was with the sequins?
HATED Chazz Palmenteri in this, and I usually like him. Former partner turned captain is cool with me - it illustrates very clearly that Kojak has more trouble “playing the game” politically, which is in keeping with his character. But Palmenteri’s ALSO a profiler? That one was a big WTF for me. We get that Kojak likes lollipops, and I’m sure we’ll eventually get some backstory on that (in the Savalas one, I think it was Kojak’s method of not smoking), but the scene where he’s trying to convince the captain to help him, and the answer is no, no, no, then Kojak cutely holds up a lollipop and the captain caves in?
Lots of shoving in the backstory in the pilot, which I suppose is to be expected - we now know Kojak’s dad was murdered in a botched robbery, and that gives some credibility to the idea that he’d have more experience running fingerprints through the system. That the captain was formerly his partner explains why the captain might be more willing to back Kojak up in bucking the system from time to time. However, both bits of backstory were handled clumsily, IMHO - again, probably to be expected in a pilot.
What I completely hated was the “atmospheric” camera work and the drawn-out lingering of “introspection” shots. Perhaps I’m spoiled by the bing-bang-boom matter of factness of Law & Order, but give me a damn story, I don’t need an emotional slo-mo of Kojak’s single tear of frustration to illustrate that he’s tough but tender.
Last issue (for now): I’m all for pushing the envelope in terms of drama on televison, and I understand the concept of “gritty” - but spare me the gratuitous swearing. Yes, we all know it’s legal to say “goddamn” on TV. It has better effect when it’s used sparingly.
My “problem” must be that I’ve never really watch Law & Order. Sure I watch an episode here and there, but not with any regularity.