Season Premier of K-Ville Goes "K-Thud"

Boasting career-supporting actors Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser, K-Ville looked from the outset to be exactly what it was: a buddy-cop show with a flip on the Lethal Weapon set-up - the uptight white guy with the on-fire, passionate black guy - set against the contemporary background of Hurricane Katrina and devastated New Orleans. With flashy, action-packed previews sporting a slimmed-down, toned up Anderson and the ever taciturn Hauser, K-Ville immediately appeared as a fresh-face in the fall's television line-up, finally something that wasn't "CSI in whatever random city we picked next". Anderson looked hardened, stretched into a new role, and Hauser looked like - well, like Hauser always does, grimly determined as usual.

Alas, what appears to be is not always meant to be, if I could twist the great bard's words for just a moment.

The initial premise is certainly striking; anything set against the backdrop of a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina is bound to be. Anderson and Hauser deliver capable performances, unfortunately, unless the writing gets better, it's doubtful whether or not they'll be able to save this series from a natural disaster of its own.

The plot devices break down into rather stereotypical cliché's - Martin Boulet's partner walks out on Boulet, (Anderson), during Hurricane Katrina, and several years later he's desperate to gain his old partner's trust back, as well as his job. Anderson himself is a man pushed to the edge by family strife, (his wife wants to leave the devastation behind; he wants to stay and fight for his city), and he rides the ragged edge, a black "Serpico", (Al Pacino), or Martin Riggs, (Mel Gibson, Lethal Weapon). New officer Trevor Cobb, (Hauser), plays the straight man saddled with an overstressed partner, and the relationship between the two is not only strained by Boulet's uncontrollable emotions, but some rather sketchy stories about Cobb's background that just don't seem to match up.

The pilot's plot is dreadfully familiar; a shadow company using former Black Ops military agents is buying up ruined property from the 9^th District, "encouraging" families to move elsewhere - Boulet and his family of course being one of the few holdouts, placing them as the targets of predictable intimidation tactics. When the dust settles and all the tangled lines of conspiracy are sorted out, at least the motive behind the conspiracy is slightly original: the daughter of a prominent businessman wants the entire 9^th District, (a largely black community), leveled and destroyed, in a misplaced bid for vengeance because of her brother's gang-related death there.

Time will tell if this series can rise above its awkward pilot episode. With all the makings for a likable buddy-cop show - decent chemistry between Anderson and Hauser, good action, and harsh, realistic cinematography reminiscent of The Bourne Identity movies - the storylines themselves will be the key. Even the ending of the pilot episode was made stiff by an awkward revelation about Cobb's real background that felt made up by the writers at the last minute, some malarkey about Cobb really being a con who somehow escaped his flooding prison cell during the Katrina storms, burning with a desire to right his wrongs. Because "records and files were lost", he invented a new identity, enlisted in the Army for a few tours in the Middle East, and became a new man.

Of course, the episode can't end without Boulet growling half affectionately, half threateningly that if his partner returns to his criminal ways, he'll "take him down" himself. Thus ends the first act of a poorly written, decently acted though extremely formulaic play; look for the critics to be just as unforgiving of this series as Hurricane Katrina was of New Orleans herself.