TV's Black Monday

Monday nights have become one of my most stressful nights of television. Sounds rough, I know.

Action-packed hour-long dramas, a concoction of characters, plenty of plot lines and 4 hours of TV that really needs undivided attention the night it airs (Mondays) because you never know whats going to turn up at the water cooler (we have a fridge full of Poland Spring in my office, but you get the general idea).

Here's the line-up:
Prison Break, 8pm on Fox
Heroes, 9pm on NBC
24, 9pm on Fox
The Black Donnellys, 10pm on NBC
(and to keep things light, the charming sitcoms How I Met Your Mother, 8pm, and The Class, 8:30pm, both on CBS.)

I could spend time trying to justify the various reasons I have for watching the various television I watch. Now's not the time for that.

I could spend time telling you my history with Prison Break, Heroes, 24, and the aforementioned CBS Monday night sitcoms that are only so-so acclaimed and only perform so-so in the ratings. Bot, now's not the time for that either.

I'm here right now to talk..and complain a bit...about Monday's newest drama, The Black Donnellys. A replacement for NBC's other problematic Monday night hour-long, Studio 60. I wasn't going to watch The BDs because the reviews weren't that great and the whole The Departed meets The Sopranos in Queens wasn't really hooking me. Based on Ally's recommendation I DVR'd a re-airing of the pilot and caught the second episode tonight.

Just because I've seen two episodes doesn't mean I'm ready to be called a fan.

The show has it's share of problems. The biggest one is identity. I think it can't decide what it wants to be. It uses several devices that are already distracting, the voice-over from a non-main more-comic relief character who puts himself in scenes but only at the end when it doesn't interrupt the drama, a mixture of music from today and from the middle of last century along with other time-period issues like - if this takes place today, then where are people's freaking cell phones? I mean, it's New York City. And these baby face boys ruling the neighborhood, pulling one over on not one, but two crime bosses.

It has flaws the remind me of a show I stuck around one season for and now can never get that time back - Desperate Housewives. I am still trying to decide if the show is so deeply confused about who it is trying to appeal to and how it's going to achieve it's ultimate story or if it is a stroke of genius that is 10 steps ahead of me and I'm going to be wow'd, like, next week.

I think they only have four episodes to hook me, and except for the the scene where two of the brothers stripped down to their underwear to keep some blood off their clothes, I haven't yet felt a true emotional draw. But, damn, that scene alone mad the two hours I've spent with the Donnelly brothers worth while. It had better come up with something else soon (maybe more Irish sausage shots?) or my TV will be showing The Black Donnellys minus the "The"...and the "Donnellys". Get it? Just black.

Well, not really. It's not like I don't have plenty to watch as it is.