I am – Hercules!!
A dull, second-rate new crime drama from writer-producer Jonathan Lisco (“The District,” “Jack & Bobby”), “K-Ville” is about cops trying to keep the peace in post-Katrina New Orleans. I wouldn’t mind learning about how the New Orleans cops are dealing with a hollowed-out Big Easy, but this series – despite the fact that it’s filmed on location – doesn’t seem to know or much care about what must be a very strange time for the NOPD. The mismatched detectives that form the show's core are bores, and the broken city around them is reduced to an excuse to lob in a ludicrous high-concept “twist.” Curiously, in the new poll conducted by Broadcasting & Cable, “K-Ville” was chosen as the worst new fall show by 13 percent of the critics and as the best new fall show by five percent of the critics. Let’s see if we can figure out who picked “K-Ville” over “Pushing Daisies,” “Chuck” and “Reaper” as their number-one fave … USA Today gives it one star (out of four) and says:

… would be terrible no matter where it was set or when it aired. But to do the show now, to take the suffering of this great American city and turn it — not into art, as The Wire does for Baltimore — but into cheap pulp fiction, is to move beyond bad to wildly offensive. …

Entertainment Weekly gives it a “C-plus” and says:

… debut episode boasts a highly improbable plot hinged around a villainous attempt to stop recovery efforts. It also features dialogue that jackknifes between the clichéd (''You've got a lot of nerve, detectives!'') and the unlikely (''There's more loose ends than a whorehouse!''). …

The New York Times says:

… This first episode doesn’t offer enough payoff for those first scenes: far too much Hauser and running, and too little Boulet and talking. But the opening scenes give proof of intelligence, and the series might yet display that intelligence more effectively, and give Mr. Anderson room to play. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… if you want to explore post-Katrina New Orleans in a dramatic and meaningful way, think of something more sophisticated than a mediocre cop show. Because although cultural and historical significance can make a good show great, it can also make a not-great show terrible. Which brings us most unfortunately to Fox's "K-Ville." …

The Washington Post says:

… The hero's name is Marlin Boulet (played by a somber Anthony Anderson) and he runs around saying Nawlinzzy things such as "I need some gumbo." Cole Hauser, as Boulet's partner, is dead weight, however, and the show's topicality gets in the way of the crime-solving.

The Chicago Tribune says:

… In the pilot, the show's various elements -- mismatched cops, urban action, post-Katrina conspiracy theories and New Orleans flavor -- bump up against one another somewhat awkwardly, but this potentially interesting series bears watching …

The Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel says:

… it's refreshing to find one of the season's most promising shows grounded not just in reality, but in the contemporary battleground of post-Katrina New Orleans. … There are moments when this good cop, faults and all, is still too good to be true, but the smart writing and acting keep those moments to a minimum. …

The Boston Herald says:

… shoddy drama that depicts the Big Easy as decaying and crime-ridden, with villains as obvious as Boss Hogg from "The Dukes of Hazzard." …

Variety says:

It’s almost impossible to separate “K-Ville” from its cynical underpinnings -- leveraging the flood-ravaged remnants of New Orleans as the attention-getting springboard for an otherwise highly conventional buddy cop drama. Stripped of that context, the series is really just an excuse for oodles of gunfire, an action-heavy hour with scant reason to exist beyond its “filmed in New Orleans” label. … plenty of lame dialogue, with the duo’s captain at one point snapping, “There’s more loose ends than a whorehouse here.” …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… it doesn't take long before the shortcomings become too great to ignore. Police procedurals have become increasingly sophisticated in their storytelling. Whether or not creator-writer Jonathan Lisco can achieve clever plot twists remains to be seen. …

9 p.m. Monday. Fox.

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