By Max Kyburz
After the countless days and months that went into its preparation (not to mention the years of history behind it), Hartford-based crime drama The Second District is finally catching a small wave.
After being subjected to a flashy teaser trailer for some several months, anticipators can now get a taste of this brainchild between Hartford police officer Mark Manson and career criminal Felix Soto for a small fee.
As someone who relishes the idea of a hardboiled crime drama set in what’s typically considered the ‘Whitest State You Know,’ I was gleeful at the news of the pilot for The Second District being available online. I just wish it was worth all the waiting.
To paraphrase Jules Winfield from Pulp Fiction, a pilot is a first episode they show to people who pick shows. On the strength of that one show, it’s decided whether they’ll make more shows. Some get picked up and become television shows. Others don’t, at which point they whither into obscurity. I fear this show will suffer the same fate.
The Second District is a foulmouthed blend of hood drama and police procedural (a politer term for “this show/movie shows how much it sucks to be a cop”) set on the roughnecked streets of Hartford. Gangs fight to stay in the clear, but the series shows that “gang” is a far broader term than some may be used to. As street toughs smoke pot and plot out points of attack, another gang rivals them: the police. As Felix (based upon co-creator Felix Soto, played by cowriter Felix Dones), the Hartford crime lord, notes: they have their own colors, multiple members and a code by which they survive. Difference? Nada.
While theres a great deal of discontent in the order of the street, more disorientation exists within the walls of the Hartford Police Department. Cops grow weary of the work they used to find meaningful, as well as of the superiors they are meant to respect. A crucial moment arrives when a snitch cop tells the chief of a possible alliance growing against her from within the department. Meanwhile, cops on the street struggle to find meaning as they find dead kids, howling mothers and…well, if none of this sounds the least bit familiar, then there’s no helping.
Which of this has not been seen or heard before? There’s nothing the series shows that makes the individual events uniquely Hartfordian. At its heart, The Second District is a project that dreams to dare, but its ambitions fail due to half-hearted execution. Instead of setting itself apart, it just makes the recycled cliches all the more unbearable.
Content aside, pacing, drama and tension seem nonexistent in The Second District, a show that needs to set itself aside from comparable police dramas. Rather than start with a bang, the show begins with yet another overdone musing about “how different things are now.” Its dramatic arrives too late at the scene of a horrific crime: a young boy shot to death at a neighborhood park. Yet it’s delivered with such melodrama it often distracts itself from the kind of gritty, realistic drama it wants to be. The execution of the dialogue is beyond cheesy; it’s almost laughable. The actors do their best to deal with it, though no performances particularly stand out.
The pilot sets up a great deal of possible scenarios for upcoming episodes, yet originality seems scarce, rendering the show highly predictable. That, however, might change if more episodes begin to circulate. Even after everything put into it, a great deal of work is left to do. I don’t require a lot of action in a police drama, but if all your pilot episode has to offer is a sudden burst into action at the very end, there’s some serious backtracking to get done. As Fatboy Slim once remixed, “Walk without rhythm, it won’t attract the worm.”
The pilot, which its creators are hoping will be optioned for a full series, is available at simplyme.tv where it can be viewed streaming for only $2.99. I only wish it were worth that much. There’s no fast-forward option, so you’re doomed to endure every last second of it.
