The Black Donnellys

So NBC is going to have an Irish O.C. show on soon, with Sopranos ending soon are they trying to create a new show for us mafia junkies to get hooked on?

For those of you who haven't seen the endless previews on NBC, below I've bootlegged some info from Wikipedia.

I wonder if it'll be any good...


The Black Donnellys is a new dramatic television program coming to NBC in the United States and to Global Television Network in Canada during the Spring of 2007. It has been confirmed that it will premiere on Monday, February 26 at 10 p.m., taking over Studio 60's time slot while that show is on hiatus. [1] The Pilot episode was leaked on the internet midway through 2006 and was available through several file sharing communities, and is also currently available from Netflix.

The show follows four young Irish-American brothers in New York's infamous Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and their involvement with organized crime.[2]

The show was created by Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Thirtysomething, Crash, Casino Royale, Flags Of Our Fathers) and written by Robert Moresco (Million Dollar Baby, Crash). The show's cast includes Billy Lush, Tom Guiry, Jonathan Tucker, Michael Stahl-David, Joe D'Onofrio, and Olivia Wilde.

In creating the show, Haggis, a native of London, Ontario, has strongly referenced his hometown's local history about the real-life Black Donnellys and the massacre associated with their name.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll check it out.

I saw an advertisement for that show last night. Looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the info.



Don Cardi

I've been watching "Brotherhood" on Showtime. It's about an Irish gangster (Jason Issacs) who returns to Providence to take over his turf called "The Hill". His brother meantime is working his way up the political ladder in Rhode Island. Very good. Basically the Whitey Bulger story with different names. I suggest many to check it out, it's on DVD.

Anyone else watching this?

The show looks like it has possibilities!

It's likeable. My only complaint so far, is that it should have been made as a period piece, set in the 70's or 80's.

Hell's kitchen just isn't much like that anymore.

Hell, they call it Clinton now !

It looks really promising though.

Clinton?? I didn't see Monica Lewinskey.

Good ending.

I liked it SC, next week's looks a little bit darker.

The pilot will be re-broadcast Thurday at 10pm EST for anyone who's interested.

I thought it was pretty good, also loved the fact that the first half hour was commerical free. I'll be watching next week.

I DVRed it and will probably watch it tonight.



Don Cardi

I liked it too, though since it's on NBC it's a tad tame. Still enjoyable though.

Same here, I missed it the first time around but will hopefully watch it tonight or this weekend sometime. I am looking forward to it.

I liked the ending, my local station was having problems so for 20 minutes or so I only got audio or nothing

I like the show, but these guys look so young, it's tough to believe.

They remind me of Baby Face Finster from Bugs Bunny.

I like it a lot. Good acting, dark humor, what else could you ask for??

Yeah SB, so far so good. The bald guy, who plays the detective is very good. He usually plays a lawyer on LAW AND ORDER.

He also played the Hasidic Jew in season one of THE SOPRANOS, that wouldn't give his wife a proper Jewish divorce. Hesh told Tony to "make like a moile", and put the bolt cutters to the guy's willy.

He gave her the divorce.

I really liked the pilot.
Last night's episode was so-so.
It's kind of a fairy tale-morality play set in a Hell's Kichen that no longer exists. (or maybe never really did)
Co-creator and writer, Bobby Moresco, grew up in Hell's Kitchen.
The show seems to be loosley based on the Westies.
Stylistically, it owes much to Snatch, and Lock, Stock And two Smoking Barrells.

It's no "Sopranos", but it's good enough for network like NBC, that can't allow sex, cursing, drug use, etc.

Still haven't watched it yet, from everything that I've heard it wasn't too bad.

I will be keeping an eye out for this although it may take a while to get to the UK
I watched Brotherhood and it was excellent!

That's exactly how I felt. I didn't think the second episode was as good, but not bad either. It needs to get better to stick around though.

The relationship with the one brother and the girl (still haven't learned their names yet) is a little awkward to me. I mean, she's married right? Have they mentioned where her husband is?

^In the pilot during one of Joey's voice over he said her husband was stuffed inside a garbage can and no one had the heart to tell her or something like that.

Not bad tonight, but the pilot was still the best of the three episodes.

Ok one thing I dont get. Jackie(didnt catch his name on here so I'll call him Jackie) is Nicky's boss, but I thought the guy that died in the pilot was the boss off a family and Nicky was his number 2. Am I missing something?

Not a bad episode.

Sal was a capo I think.

What pissed me off is that I wrote a story where these Irish guys kidnap an italian mobster and then it happened on the show but I haven't turned in the story yet.

This show isn't as good as it's pilot.

Also, I wonder how much longer it can go with this informant talking since he's not much older than he is in the story he is telling.

What's Cardi's review?

I'll only consider watching it if Cardi gives it the thumbs up.

This show is going nowhere fast. The only good part is Joey Ice Cream's narration, and that's only because he's so forking stupid.

2 cast members so far who were in The Departed.
One also played Henry Hill's brother in Goodfellas.

I could have told you that after the second episode!

I can't stand Paul Haggis' stuff. Talk about simplistic melodrama. Flags of Our Fathers was mildly interesting in concept, though.

I just turned off the timer on this so it stops recording on my dvr. I enjoyed the show in the beginning, but it has ever so quickly become a slow show. Oh well...

This show sucks!

These reviews are starting to put me off somewhat

Good, then you won't be dissapointed that the show got cancelled.

The show deserved to be cancelled.
Keep Paul Haggis off my telly!

Paul Haggis should be raped with a pool cue.

Oh well then...
Doubt it will make our shores then if its so bad

The first episode wasn't bad, but then it was all downhill from there.

Well i might just watch the first episode and leave the rest then....

For those still intrigued, you can view the show here.

Are you still watching this show? I didn't know it was still on. Has it improved?

I haven't seen it on, figured it got cancelled

Well the series finally made our shores and i watched the first episode last night! I don't think i will be going to special lengths to see the rest of it
If i'm in and not watching anything else i'll watch it....
Was'nt that good i have to concur!

Were the BDs cancelled?

Watched the 2nd episode last night and it is starting to get on my nerves already...which is'nt a good sign

i could not stand to watch it after the first 5 mins my older brother was watching it with me and said 'its like watching paint dry' i agree

I don't like the way that Joey Ice Cream chappy keeps popping up all the time.....

Still poor if a slightly better episode last night...
Thing is i am hooked on the damn show now,even it is awful
The 2 chaps who play Tommy and Jimmy are the worst actors i have ever seen. Why do their mouths keep twitching like that?

I was about to start a new thread on this. Kudos to the Search Function!

This wasn't so bad at all! Sure they had alot of pretensions (Soprano's had that recurring theme of Italian-Americana in it; it's like TBD tried to capture the same kinda zeitgeist for Irish-America but fell way, way short)

Still, as a crew of young Irish guys from Hell Kitchen, I thought they they did alright. It had a great premise; the small crew inadvertently drawn deeper and deeper into the life, through the older brothers trangressions against the local wiseguys (ie-murdering smalltime bookie Louie Downtown, a nobody but for the fact he's the nephew of local capo Sal Minetta. And Kirk Acevedo's turn as one of said wiseguy's, as usual from Miguel Alvarez, awesome.

I liked the unreliable narration of Joey Icecream, and I thought the plotline that saw a young Jimmy Donnelly waiting for his father in the car while listening to music through his headphones, blissfully unaware of the wiseguy's beating his father to death outside the car window was poignant. Especially as a catalyst for Jimmy's later problems with the local mobsters.

I thought that each of the brothers, while slightly clich, were still pretty well thought out. Huey Farrel, a cool character, and his brother Dokie, a typically great turn by Peter Greene.

Overall,despite a number of compelling aspects, it did fall short of what they were trying to pull off. Still, I would've watched a second series. There's been far worse over the years which managed a decent run. I feel like there was some definite potential here.

Hmm. Look, I just want to clarify.

I liked the Black Donnely's, but I do realize it's not great. I did watch the first season, and while it never grabbed me like Soprano's or The Wire and it could drag for a few episodes until something interesting happened again, I wanted to make the point that there has been far, far worse over the years to have made it past the first season. TBD, while no great art, deserved another season to make a go of it.

Whaddya gonna do, eh?

I got this on DVD for cheap, and you know what? I still haven't been able to finish it! A good idea done badly.

That actually sums up The Black Donnely's pretty well.

That was the problem with the show. There hasn't been a "crew of young Irish guys" in Hell's Kitchen in over twenty years. The area is now called Clinton, and it is among the most gentrified neighborhoods in Manhattan.

They should have set the show in the late '70s or early '80s and made it a period piece. The Irish gangs (like the Westies) are certainly an interesting topic, but to set in in the present day was just far too unrealistic.

As far the geography thing goes, I wasn't 100% if there was still technically a Hells Kitchen in New York at all. Being all the way down-under though I figure you'll cut me a bit of slack.

I totally agree that TBD may have worked much better as a period piece, but realistic or not, the premise of what a crew of young Irish guys would be facing if they were around today was ,I thought at least, an interesting take on the genre.

I mean, as great and realistic as The Soprano's was, watching it one could assume that most mob-bosses commit their own murders and that NJ seriously rivalled NY as far as mafia families went.
But its entertainment thats the name of that game, innit?

In any case, Im not defensive about TBD enough to not recognise it faults and lackings. As Longneck said, TBD was a "good idea done badly"

Sorry about that, Mickey. I know I can be a bit of a know-it-all douchebag when it comes to New York City. But that's probably because I've lived here for more than fifty years. So you'll have to cut me some slack there .

And you're absolutely right about "The Sopranos." The idea that Tony could thumb his nose at the New York families was beyond ludicrous. During season four, when Tony got all smug and defiant on Carmine Sr., I was actually rooting for Carmine to have hime clipped.

It would have been much more realistic if they had made the Soprano family a branch of one of the New York families (like the Lucchese's Jersey crew). Then Tony would have the backing of a major New York family. Because without that, it's like Carmine said: They were a "glorified crew."

But still the best television show of all time .

There is so much material available here that it would be amazing if done right. You got the Westies hooked up with the Gambinos and if someone like David Simon worked with T.J. English (who wrote The Westies book) to create this world again it could be excellent.

If you used some artistic license and included Boston and Whitey Bulger you have even more. You could do Sopranos all over again with Whitey instead of Tony. Whitey going from FBI informant to handling his handlers is an amazing story in itself.

at first i read that tony was based off of vinny ocean, but the more and more i watch the show i believe that he was based off michael tacceta. who was the power player of the jersey faction of the lucheesse. it always seemed like the sopranos had the backing of carmine's family. it really hit me when they wanted to whack out the family and take whatever was left would fall in line. kinda like the vic and gas whack jersey!

That "whack Jersey" line is classic. Art imitating life imitating art imitating life imitat...

Interestingly, I recently read that as recent as 2010 The Black Donnelly's is still being picked up and aired in several European countries, and that show creator Paul Haggis won an award for his work in 07 at the Cologne Conference (not neccesarily for his work on TBD as much as his film work though I believe the show was screened there)

Also, TBD is second only to Heroes as the most streamed show of the NBC website.

Just once more, TBD was, as Longneck put it, "a good idea done badly". Still, if a second series had been made, I at least (and maybe four other guys in Europe) would have watched it.

This show wasn't too bad. Not great by any means. And a soft-take on the Westies. As much that can be expected by a broadcast show.

Interesting enough. I'm pretty sure the whacking of the bookie and the subsequent taking over of the operation as to get ahead in Hell's Kitchen underworld, is a definite alusion to Jimmy Coonan's murder of Ruby Stien

mmm ok show but the leading guy seemed retarted always bitting on his lip