Mob City (TNT) -- From Frank Darabont -- Season 1 Thread (3 week event)

[djariya]

The epic battle between a determined police chief and a dangerous mobster inflames 1940s Los Angeles in TNT's eagerly anticipated television event Mob City. This powerful drama comes to TNT from Frank Darabont (The Walking Dead), who wrote and directed the pilot and serves as executive producer on the series. Based on the critically acclaimed book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City, by John Buntin, Mob City opens in post-war Los Angeles, home to glamorous movie stars, powerful studio heads and returning war heroes. But it's also a city caught between a powerful and corrupt police force and an even more dangerous criminal network determined to make L.A. its West Coast base. Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker (Neal McDonough - Captain America, Desperate Housewives) has made it his mission to free the city of criminals like Ben "Bugsy" Siegel (Ed Burns - Entourage) and Mickey Cohen (Jeremy Luke - Don Jon), the ruthless king of the Los Angeles underworld. Parker also won't hesitate to go after anyone from his own police force who sells out honor and duty for the sake of a big payout. To carry out his sweep of organized crime, Parker sets up a new mob task force within the LAPD. Headed by Det. Hal Morrison (Jeffrey DeMunn - The Walking Dead, The Shawshank Redemption), the task force includes Det. Joe Teague (Jon Bernthal - The Walking Dead), an ex-Marine who holds his cards close to his chest. Mob City's exceptional ensemble cast also includes Gregory Itzin (24), Robert Knepper (Prison Break), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Alexa Davalos (Clash of the Titans, The Mist). Mob City is produced by TNT Originals, with Darabont, Michael De Luca (The Social Network) and Elliot Webb (Alpha House) serving as executive producers.

This starts tomorrow night on TNT. Going to take the initiative and start a new thread. The older thread is still labeled as LA Noire and the show is no longer called that.

Remember, it's 6 episodes over the next 3 weeks.

Here's a new trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I96ITUJL6yo

[Visco.]

Eh, the trailer made it seem really meh.

I think it has potential to be a great start-up for TNT but it's going to need several seasons for the story and characters to develop.

[djariya]

This is the kind of show and time period that needs time to develop the story and characters. I trust Darabont's writing, but hopefully it does well enough in this abbreviated season that it gets a larger episode order for a 2nd season.

[Moviefan1203]

Originally Posted by djariya

This is the kind of show and time period that needs time to develop the story and characters. I trust Darabont's writing, but hopefully it does well enough in this abbreviated season that it gets a larger episode order for a 2nd season.

Is the plan for a second season? The commercials and trailers make it sound like a miniseries.

[djariya]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Is the plan for a second season? The commercials and trailers make it sound like a miniseries.

Yes, they want to do more. TNT scheduled this as a 3 week event to attract binge watchers, plus the show has been in the can so long that they probably wanted to air it when network competition is slow.

[hagios]

Originally Posted by djariya

This starts tomorrow night on TNT. Going to take the initiative and start a new thread. The older thread is still labeled as LA Noire and the show is no longer called that.

Remember, it's 6 episodes over the next 3 weeks.

Here's a new trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I96ITUJL6yo

I've been looking forward to Mob City, I've got this on our DVR schedule!

Also looking forward to Bonnie & Clyde on our DVR shedule on Sunday Dec. 8. It's being shown on 3 channels History, A & E, Lifetime!

[dyne]

Originally Posted by djariya

Yes, they want to do more. TNT scheduled this as a 3 week event to attract binge watchers, plus the show has been in the can so long that they probably wanted to air it when network competition is slow.

I've been wondering if it was going to be a series or not. I've got the dvr set. I love this time period.

[djariya]

Some thoughts about the 2 hours.

Overall, I would probably give it a B-. Mainly liked the look of the era and the sets. Very good work by the production designer. The 2 episodes didn't really flow very well though.

Surprisingly I found Teague to be the least interesting character of the ensemble. His motives confused the hell out of me.

[Show spoiler]

Frankly, his storyline especially after killing Hecky didn't make sense until the reveal that Hecky's girlfriend was his ex wife. I initially assumed that Teague was playing both sides.

Pegg did a good job and I thought he pulled off a good American accent.

Really liked McDonough as William Parker. The younger actor who played him in the flashback looked almost exactly like him. Great casting. I would say there wasn't enough Parker in the 2 hours.

Loved Knepper as Rothman. The shootout at the Italian restaurant was awesome.

I'll definitely finish out the season, but overall it was just an alright premiere.

BTW, did the constant commercial breaks drive anyone nuts?


I know not everyone has the time to watch all 2 hours at once, so I went ahead and spoilerized the key plot point.

I think for this show to be considered for a second season, it needs to get over 1.0 in the demos and 4-5M viewers minimum. It got a lot of promotion, but it will be tough considering it's December.

[theusher]

TNT’s ‘Mob City’ Debuts Soft

The two-hour premiere last night of Frank Darabont’s LA Noirish limited event series pulled in 2.3 million total viewers for TNT. Debuting at 9 PM, the heavily promoted Mob City drew 801, 000 viewers among Adults 18-49 and 875,000 viewers among the Adult 25-54 demo. While something quite different for TNT as a limited event series, and with good potential digital life, Mob City’s results last night are at the top end between the cable station’s two most recent debuts Monday Mornings and King And Maxwell - both of whom have since been cancelled. The David E. Kelly medical drama pulled in a weak 1.34 million total viewers at 10 PM on February 4 this year with just 386,000 among Adults 18-49 and 472,000 among the 25-54 demo. The Rebecca Romijn and Jon Tenney P.I. drama drew 3.5 million total viewers with 825,000 among Adults 18-49 and a bit more than 1 million among Adults 25-54 on June 10. Mob City is based on John Buntin’s book L.A. Noir: The Struggle For The Soul Of America’s Most Seductive City. Starring Neal McDonough, Ed Burns, Milo Ventimiglia and Jon Bernthal, the one-hour six-episode series is set to run until December 18. Like the LA Noir book, Mob City focuses on the war between the Police Chief William Parker’s LAPD and newly transplanted gangsters like Mickey Cohen for control of LA during the 1940s. TNT picked up the drama from the former Walking Dead showrunner and fellow EP Michael De Luca with a 6-episode order in October 2012.

[silverlakephil]

OOps, missed this last night.

[djariya]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

OOps, missed this last night.

Re-airs Saturday night

[djgeneral]

DVRed it.

They shouldn't have canceled Southland. TNT sucks.

[Moe Szyslak]

This was meh. I'll finish up the season since it's brief, but I feel as though they expect the viewer to be more interested in the overall look and feel of the show than the actual story and characters. Some paper thin monologues and dialogue from Darabont here.

[djgeneral]

Originally Posted by Moe Szyslak

This was meh. I'll finish up the season since it's brief, but I feel as though they expect the viewer to be more interested in the overall look and feel of the show than the actual story and characters. Some paper thin monologues and dialogue from Darabont here.

Just finished the first two episodes as well. I agree pretty much completely.

[Lemmy Lugosi]

Originally Posted by Moe Szyslak

This was meh. I feel as though they expect the viewer to be more interested in the overall look and feel of the show than the actual story and characters. Some paper thin monologues and dialogue from Darabont here.

Agreed. I didn't care for this very much at all.

[Akijama]

I liked it. It didn't left me in awe, but it was a good watch. It's a frickin noir; dunno what were people expecting of it. Off the wall (sub)plots in the vein of American Horror Story?

[Tony208]

eh it's only 6 episodes I'll try to watch it in one sitting somewhere down the road

[Pieter V]

Any news on a possible Season 2?

[djgeneral]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

Any news on a possible Season 2?

Very unlikely.

Week 1: 2.29 million viewers
Week 2: 1.39 million viewers
Week 3: 1.35 million viewers

[xander]

This was worth the watch, but overall I wasn't too impressed. The period setting was really cool, however. I''m still not entirely sure exactly what Milo Ventagmila's character was. Lawyer/gangster?

I also have no idea why TNT felt the need at every commercial break to show me scenes of what was coming up next like I wasn't already watching it. It's like they had no faith in the program to keep anyone's attention. Super irritating.

Also, Teague got beat up A LOT.