'Murder in the First' and 'Power' redefine crime drama
Two different but equally fascinating cable dramas - TNT's Murder in the First and Starz's Powers - return, stretching the boundaries of the crime procedural.
Two different but equally fascinating cable dramas - TNT's Murder in the First and Starz's Powers - return, stretching the boundaries of the crime procedural.
Power boasts a unique perspective: It's told through the eyes of a New York City drug dealer. A more traditional piece that stays on the side of the cops, Murder in the First is nonetheless the more accomplished.
Dissecting a massacre
Premiering at 10 p.m. Monday, Murder in the First was co-created by seasoned 71-year-old genre specialist Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue) and a relative newcomer, 39-year-old screenwriter Eric Lodal.
Intense, taut and brilliantly scripted, the 10-part series stars Taye Diggs (Private Practice) and Kathleen Robertson (Boss) as San Francisco homicide detectives immersed each season in a storyline that focuses on a single case.
Last year, they went after a narcissistic Silicon Valley whiz kid (Harry Potter's Tom Felton) for murdering his pregnant lover. The story built up steam gradually and methodically.
Season two opens with an explosive free-for-all that leaves nearly 20 people dead after two teens open fire on their classmates on a school bus.
Armed with automatic rifles and stun grenades, misfits Dustin Maker (Mateus Ward) and Alfie Rentman (Jimmy Bennett) dispatch more than a dozen kids, then emerge from the bus to slaughter all comers on a busy city street.
Dustin is caught quickly. Alfie, a disturbed boy who has been treated as a dangerous patient by his cold psychiatrist dad (Spencer Garrett) leads the police on rampage across the city for the course of two heart-pounding episodes.
The storyline then bifurcates: We follow the teenage massacre as it winds its way through the justice system. Meanwhile, a deeper mystery about police corruption develops around the shooting death of one of the cops pursuing Alfie.
Murder in the First is peerless in its ability to engage viewers with its devastating, insightful use of the procedural.
A post-modern Gatsby
Created by The Good Wife writer-producer Courtney Kemp Agboh and executive-produced by rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Power returns at 9 p.m. Saturday on Starz.
The drama is about the schizoid life led by James "Ghost" St. Patrick (Being Mary Jane's Omari Hardwick), a brilliant entrepreneur who opened a trendy Manhattan nightclub to help launder the proceeds of his lucrative drug-distribution network.
He's known as Ghost for his ability to remain entirely hidden from his own employees and the cops. No one knows that Ghost the gangster and James the businessman are the same man - except his wife, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), and his second-in-command, Tommy (Joseph Sikora).
That holds true for Angela Valdez (Lela Loren), an assistant U.S. district attorney who dated James when they were teens and who falls for him again in the first season. Trouble is, Angela is on a secret federal task force set up to hunt down Ghost and the cartel boss who supplies his drugs.
She doesn't know her lover is Ghost. He doesn't know she's a fed.
Over the top, utterly crazy, but always fun, the second season follows James and Angela as they awaken to each other's secrets.
215-854-2736
