"The Black Donnellys" NBC - Monday Night (1 Viewer)

Henry Gale · Feb 26, 2007

The pilot is on tonight, 9 PM Central.
Sounds like one you'll want to catch from the beginning.
Paul Haggis is the big name associated with this show and if you're familiar with his body of work I should not have to tell you any more.

I'm still waiting for EZ Streets The Entire Show In A Small Box!

TonyD · Feb 26, 2007

on again thursday night

Abby_B · Feb 26, 2007

I saw the pilot already - I *loved* it. I think this is going to be one of those shows that either you love and embrace, or absolutely hate, but I loved it. I hope everyone tunes in and gives it a chance tonight, it's so worth it. I loved all the characters so much.

Jon Martin · Feb 26, 2007

Yes, CRASH and FACTS OF LIFE.

RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, CRASH has its fans, but so does Carrot Top.

I might give the show a chance, even though most of the reviews have been very mixed.

Henry Gale · Feb 26, 2007

Well, he wrote these:
# Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) (story)
# Casino Royale (2006) (screenplay)
# Flags of Our Fathers (2006) (screenplay)
# The Last Kiss (2006) (screenplay)
# Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Jon Martin · Feb 26, 2007

Those were mostly adaptations.

But yeah, he has done some good work. He is one of the most debated writers out there, you either love him or hate him.

BLACK DONNELLYS beginning now.

Patrick Sun · Feb 26, 2007

I remember liking the pilot as well. Will tune in for the next few episodes.

Joe_H · Feb 26, 2007

It was interesting, I'll turn it on next week but I'm not sure I'll watch the whole season.

ScottH · Feb 27, 2007

I liked it a lot. I didn't read any reviews on it, but I'd be curious what the negative comments were?

Don S · Feb 27, 2007

I thought it was a great pilot. I'll definitely tune in next week.

LCD22 · Feb 27, 2007

I've already seen this through Netflix, but Paul Haggis is also the creator of "Due South" (which I'm a huge fan of), and this series is as good as that show, in my opinion. I haven't seen any of his post-Due South work until "Donnellys".

If you go to the official website, you can see a preview of next week's episode. It's under "Interactive Preview". They also have a video commentary for last night's premiere. And if you missed last night's live blog with co-creator Bobby Moresco (his "Crash" writing partner) and star Jonathan Tucker ("Tommy"), you can read it on blog.nbc.com/blackdonnellys.

Hopefully I'll have time today to watch the pilot commentary and next week's episode.

nickGreenwood · Feb 27, 2007

Good show, there seems to be some sort of resurgence of "mob" based things, probably thanks to Scorsese's "The Departed".
I like Haggis' work, what I've seen of it anyway.
Weird seeing Tom Guiry all grown up, last I saw of him was The Sandlot and Lassie. He looks quite different and sounds a bit like Denis Leary (who played his dad in Sandlot). The guy who played Tommy reminded me a bit of Tobey Maguire and Rob Thomas (the lead singer of matchbox twenty, not the creator of Veronica Mars) but he played his part extremely well.

The relationships between the four brothers seem to be well written, that if anything will keep me watching.

Marty M · Feb 27, 2007

I saw this last night and enjoyed it. I will be tuning in next week. Don't forget that Paul Haggis was also the creator of the series EZ Streets that starred Ken Olin. This show has the feel of that show.

Abby_B · Feb 27, 2007

I really hope that the ratings were solid for this. I want it to do well, so badly. When is that kind of thing announced/known?

I also really wish that the music that was in the original pilot had been in last night's episode. But, still, it was pretty fab, even without it.

Patrick Sun · Feb 27, 2007

A show of hands: who winced when that kid got his leg run over in the opening moments of the episode? Ick!

Malcolm R · Feb 27, 2007

By comparison, TBD's lead-in, "Heroes" had an 8.5 rating. Also, last week's "Studio 60" had a 4.1 rating. So it's about 20% higher than S60, but still lost more than 1/3 of the audience from "Heroes". It also skewed quite old, with "Heroes" the #1 show of the night with the young audience while TBD was tied for #11.

But they should know better than to challenge The Oprah.

Jon Martin · Feb 27, 2007

I thought the show started well, but I lost interest quick. And, for all my complaining about STUDIO 60, I stayed with every episode of that.

As for the negative reviews, Matt Roush of TV Guide called it a "mob drama for dummies". Ouch.

Now will they bring back STUDIO 60 since the audience wasn't there for this, despite all the hype?

ScottH · Feb 27, 2007

I loved Studio 60 (especially in the beginning) but I have to say, with the road that seemed to be heading down, I think I'd rather have The Black Donnelleys at this point.

chuck_b · Feb 27, 2007

FYI: The complete pilot episode is available for a FREE download on iTunes.

Chris · Feb 27, 2007

I tend to agree with one of the above.. I've had ups and downs with S60, but the last few eps have just been.. bad. It's a show that can't figure out what it is.

I think it's hard for S60 to disparage TBD over ratings; last I checked, a 5.5/9 is considerably better then a 4.1 Share. Hell, it basically tells you TBD drew 33% higher ratings (roughly). NBC may still want better success, but a 5.5 is easily a better draw over a 4.1. But this is really the wrong slot for TBD. You're going up against a crime drama (CSI) so you aren't really a good counter to it. That's where I thought Studio 60 would work, as good counter programming.

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