Because NBC’s Law & Order: SVU was a re-run last night, Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin and I tuned into CBS’s Cane.
Mrs./Dr. TVBloggin had seen a few previous episodes so she wasn’t completely lost about the plot. As my first view, I felt like the Midwestern whiteboy that I am and that I had been plunked down in the middle of Little Havana without a map. So I spent the first half hour just trying to sort out the characters and what was going on. That’s not the show’s fault that’s on me.
My impressions:
- The show has a great cast. Jimmy Smits, Hector Elizondo, Rita Moreno, and Nestor Carbonell aren’t just excellent Hispanic actors, they are simply excellent actors. It might be one of the most talented casts on TV.
- The show has a good “feel.” I felt like I was in South Florida among wealth and Cuban culture.
- The show seems a bit soap operaish. I’m not sure the writing in last night’s episode about the Israeli mobster’s shaking down Smit’s little brother and the sub-plot about his son’s elopement were equal to the actors. My wife wanted to compare it to The Sopranos. I wanted to compare it more to Dynasty.
- The show had some heavy-handed lighting. As Smits basically had three people killed who had screwed with his brother (coupled with what I guess was a previous murder of someone threatening his family), he was often lit with reddish light. Combined with his devilish good looks and Van Dyke beard, he actually started to look like Satan. And I realize he’s on a path that could lead to very bad things, I thought making him look like Satan was over the top.
I will sample a few more episodes to see what I think about the series. Maybe I’ll be hooked. Anyway, I think the show is worth an hour of your time to see if it is the next great network drama.
Above: Jimmy Smits as Alex Vega.
Below: Rita Moreno as Amalia Duque.
Technorati Tags: Jimmy Smits, Cane, Rita Moreno, CBS, Nestor Carbonell, Hector Elizondom, Miami, Little Havana, rum, Cuba, Cubans
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