Against the tidal wave of television series released since 'the Wire' first premiered almost ten years ago, Show me a Hero quietly aims for the head and makes very few compromises to its trajectory. A show like this is way more content to jog its way steadily towards the finish line ahead of a pack of exhausted red faced sprinters who run out of steam well before the race is over. It knows that a story this fascinating but also so full of bureaucratic nitty gritty and highbrow social commentary can't start out the gate sprinting - it needs to build, and to grow, and to settle in your heart and your head in order to make its case for greatness. And it has nothing to prove. Much like the Wire and Treme, the payoff will come to those who wait it out, and unfortunately the series will probably suffer (or enjoy, depending on how you look at it) the same fate as those aforementioned shows because of it. A core group of loyal fans will stay with it from day one, and then countless other attention deficit disordered viewers will tune out until after the series has aired will come back to it later and wonder why the hell they waited so long to watch it.
Oscar Isaacs is phenomenal here, I would count this as his best work on anything, television or film or otherwise. He creates a complicated, conflicted character who gradually comes to tragic grips with his role as mayor presiding over a controversial housing development in Yonkers in the 1980's with a subtleness that I'm not sure many other actors would have delivered. Even my description doesn't really pay his character justice, it is never really made clear if he ever did grasp the importance of his political stand when he was in office. I'm not sure that is really the point. The point seems to be more that institutions can tower over men who think they control them, and that they do eventually have the power to affect positive change, in the same way that Simon's previous series showed us that institutions can be cold and inhospitable to anything but failure.
The show has a wonderful cast, and a lot of 'oh wow, I haven't seen that guy in AGES' moments - in roles that often play against type, and give these actors a lot of thoughtful, intelligent dialogue to work with.
And finally Paul Haggis. I haven't been the biggest fan of his work in the past, but paired with David Simon's wonderful naturalistic dialogue the directing feels masterful here, less gritty, more evocative than the Wire but stripped of the over the top melodrama found in Haggis's other work. There's a restraint here that I really appreciate.
I hope those people who might have tuned out after the first episode pick it up again. Show me a Hero is completely worth your full attention.
Oscar Isaacs is phenomenal here, I would count this as his best work on anything, television or film or otherwise. He creates a complicated, conflicted character who gradually comes to tragic grips with his role as mayor presiding over a controversial housing development in Yonkers in the 1980's with a subtleness that I'm not sure many other actors would have delivered. Even my description doesn't really pay his character justice, it is never really made clear if he ever did grasp the importance of his political stand when he was in office. I'm not sure that is really the point. The point seems to be more that institutions can tower over men who think they control them, and that they do eventually have the power to affect positive change, in the same way that Simon's previous series showed us that institutions can be cold and inhospitable to anything but failure.
The show has a wonderful cast, and a lot of 'oh wow, I haven't seen that guy in AGES' moments - in roles that often play against type, and give these actors a lot of thoughtful, intelligent dialogue to work with.
And finally Paul Haggis. I haven't been the biggest fan of his work in the past, but paired with David Simon's wonderful naturalistic dialogue the directing feels masterful here, less gritty, more evocative than the Wire but stripped of the over the top melodrama found in Haggis's other work. There's a restraint here that I really appreciate.
I hope those people who might have tuned out after the first episode pick it up again. Show me a Hero is completely worth your full attention.