Did anyone catch the pilot last night? I thought it was very good. It felt more like a movie than a TV show to me. Lots of action. These are likeable bad guys (which always drives me nuts). I’m not sure how they’re going to sustain the level of action without pushing these characters into the non-likeable column, but we’re going to stay with it for a few weeks and see how it pans out.
I believe they’re re-running the pilot Thursday.
Any other doper reviews?
Well, maybe it’s because I just watched The Departed yesterday, but I turned it off about halfway through. I thought the acting was crap, the characters were cardboard cutouts, and the cliches and stereotypes bordered on lampoon. I haven’t erased it from the DVR, though, because I do want to watch it all the way through before making my final decision, but so far, …meh.
Thanks for the heads up about the replay. I will always give Paul Haggis a shot. Sometimes his stuff is crap, sometimes it’s brilliant. The review in Entertainment Weekly was pretty meh but I’ll watch and form my own opinion. I will say this, the commercials are doing nothing to make me want to watch. If I didn’t know this was a Paul Haggis show I wouldn’t go near it.
I watched it all of the way through and will most likely give it another try. The acting was pretty crappy though, especially the eldest brother (I forget his name atm) but it was good enough for me to watch it again.
The Black Donnellys should refer to the Canadian family of the 1800s who were murdered (http://www.donnellys.com/), but alas, it is not to be so. I was very excited that a part of Canadian history was to be dealt with on American network tv, until I read the description.
I was only sort of watching it last night which I admit made it hard to tell the seemingly identical brothers apart. Biggest problem is that it seems oddly anachronistic. It apparently takes place in the present time or nearly so, but it seems as though it would play better if it were situated in the 40’s or 50’s. Irish mobsters vs Italian mobsters, all with cute nicknames? Boosting cars and hijacking trucks? I guess this all is stll part of life in the Big City but it all seems oddly innocent (in a weird sense of the word).
It gave me sort of a Rich Man/Poor Man vibe. (A link for you young 'uns out there.) Not quite sure why.
[hijack…all apologies]
Interesting thing about the Black Donnellys (the Canadian real people) and Southwestern Ontario. I grew up in the general area where The Black Donnelly ordeal occurred and the funny thing is that when you learn about them in school it is still a bunch of lies. I NEVER learned that four of them were massacred. I only heard that they were this wicked bad family who used to torture and murder people. It wasn’t until my mid 20’s when I decided to do a bit research that I learned that the other side really has some things to feel guilty about as well.
[/hijack]
Regarding the show, I thought it was alright but I never really do well with shows in which I can’t really relate to anyone. I was sort of hoping the one brother would keep his nose clean. Guess not.
I’m waiting for the return of Studio 60. Therefore, I will not watch the Black Donnellys.
It’s the same reason I won’t watch Ghost Whisperer. I’m waiting for *Joan of Arcadia * to come back. 
Oh, there are plenty of better reasons not to watch Ghost Whisperer than that.
I liked the premise, and being a mick I relate to some of the ruffian aspects of the guys, that and having brothers, I like the brotherly camaraderie…That being said, the acting could use some work, but by in large I liked it. I agree, it’s going to be hard to keep these guys in the likeable section…
::hijacking::
The one and only time I attempted to wach Ghost Whisperer I almost busted a gut laughing. It went sort of like this:
Young widow: “Did my dead husband love me?”
Ghost of dead husband: “Tell her she was my heart, my soul, my hopes and my dreams. She was warm sun on a cold January night. She was the cool breeze on a hot baking August day. Tell her she lit up the depths of my unhappiness and her light shone brightly and led me to the heights of joy! I loved her more than my own life and I love her now in death.”
Jennifer Love Hewitt: “He said: ‘Yup’…”
:rolleyes:
There are only two reasons to watch Ghost Whisperer…
I’ll let you guess what they are. 
In other words, exactly like Paul Haggis’s last foray into predictable stereotypes, Crash. Sadly, he’ll probably win an award for this piece of crap as well. I watched about 40 minutes of the pilot and then got bored.
Exactly what I came to say. After giving up on Crash about five minutes in, when the black guys noticed that Sandra Bullock grabbed Brenden Fraser’s arm when they walked by, :rolleyes: This show could be the best thing on TV and I won’t know. Crash…ugh.
You too? I was wondering how the heck they would do a SERIES about a family that got killed off like that.
So all these threads with the totally different pilot with the same name are making my head hurt.
Linky no worky.
It seemed like they were trying to live up to every modern mob show ever made without doing anything original.
I’ll have to watch the second episode to see where they are going with this.
I liked it. I’ll keep watching it. I’m a sucker for brotherly love and crime and vendettas and accents.
This reminds me somewhat of **Four Brothers ** with Mark Wahlberg.
Can someone tell me why the caucasian Donnellys are referred to in the title as “black”?
(Note: I have not yet seen any episodes of this show. The title seems stupid, but I’m willing to reconsider.)