The Black Donnellys: The (Un)luck of the Irish

I'll say it upfront: I'm not easily entertained by what's on television.

I haven't really followed any one series since 'Homicide: Life on the Street' went off the air (rather abruptly, too). I plodded along with 'ER' after Dr. Greene died, but after a while it was just another hospital soap opera. I was a big 'Sopranos' fan, but the erratic schedule and that one season that seemed to be more concerned with Tony's tax return made my interest wane.

This is not to say that there aren't some fine shows out there right now; I'm just saying that, aside from 'Lost' (because, hey, who doesn't want to find out how that's going to end?), I never really got hooked on a new show.

I took a chance, though, with 'The Black Donnellys' because the pilot, while not exactly an original premise, caught my attention immediately with the device of using a narrator to tell the story in flashback of the Donnelly brothers from his jail cell. While it initially started out as almost a dark comedy, it implied that something big (perhaps awful) happened and you have to wait until this prisoner (the comic relief of Joey 'Ice Cream' as played by Keith Nobbs) finishes his tale.

Or is it a confession?

In each episode, Joey tells a little more of the story; but bear in mind that you, the viewer, are learning about past events. So I like the implication: by telling us what's already happened, it's like we're all piled into a car with no brakes, speeding towards a brick wall. And we know it.

The plot follows four Irish brothers as they are well on their way to becoming the newest permanent residents of New York City's criminal underworld. And despite multiple story lines and complex personalities, each character gets an equal amount of weight to carry to make the episodes work.

Tommy Donnelly (played by Jonathan Tucker) reminds me a bit of Michael Corleone: he tries to distance himself from his violent family but gets thrust into in the center of the whole mess. Tommy is a gifted art student who just wants to find his own way and (he hopes) end up with the love of his life, Jenny Reilly (Olivia Wilde). But, as in 'The Godfather', a series of circumstances escalates into violence and Tommy Donnelly, like Michael Corleone before him, has to step up and become what he'd hoped to avoid: a powerful gangster.

Peter Greene's 'Dokey' Farrell's character is the best bad guy on the show, trumping even the reptilian Nicky Cottero (played by 'Oz' alumnus Kirk Acevedo). What's disturbing about Dokey is that he operates with both a raw sadness and a complete lack of conscience, making him more of a threat to the Donnellys than the Italians are.

The heart of the 'The Black Donnellys' is the unconditional bond between the brothers and their conflict of being caught in the middle of Dokey and the Italian mob, both of whom suspect that the boys are the cause of the rift between the Irish and Italian gangs. So Tommy has his hands full trying to keep his brothers from getting themselves into more trouble while keeping both Dokey and the Italians from killing them all.

The relationship between Jenny and Tommy is tragic and frustrating but not all that compelling at this point. Sure, you want to see them end up together; the writers have done a good job in creating tension between Tommy and Jenny early on. But you get the feeling that, at this point at least, the subplot of the love story is just kind of thrown in to keep the show from being a story about a bunch of violent guys trying to decide how to hurt each other (which, essentially, it is).

For network television, the action can be brutal while not being gory or over-the-top violent. In most scenes, it's what's implied and not seen that's more disturbing (check out Dokey's weapon of choice). I don't think it will be a-body-a-week like 'The Sopranos'; I think that the story line, as it's unfolding, is solid enough right now to not have to rely on gratuitous violence just to keep people interested.

Overall, a well-written, well-acted show. I'm entertained.

Catch the show online Mondays at 9, or purchase episodes from the iTunes music store.