The Westies

Cast: J.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver

What the fuck type of accent is JK Simmons trying to do?

Initial reviews strong so far from critics. 3/5 stars mostly with some 4/5's

Once it ends, I'll binge just for J.K. Simmons.

Much more watchable than Godfather of Harlem. So if the same creator working on this was a negative or putting you off, at least there's that.

I'm familiar with all the characters and the real life story which the series is based, so it's got my watch to see how they do with a fictional adaptation version. They've retained a lot of the Italian mafia names but made the creative decision to fictionalize the Westies names entirely, for reasons unknown. Maybe due to biography rights holders or not to step on any documentary project toes.

Cad said:

They love making adaptations featuring white criminal gangs now.

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That was the only eyeroll moment for me-- when the FBI agent in charge is a studious educated black woman tasked with investigating these white scumbags. She has a conflicted white underling to help her endeavor.

Other than that, it's a fairly straightforward Gambino/Hell's Kitchen story with no major DEI insertions into the adaptation. If it had a fictional "Inside man" African-american character playing both sides and "eventually doing the right thing working with the FBI" you could throw this in the trash. There's nothing too on the nose, although it being the creator of Godfather of Harlem, I expect that to change in the next few episodes. Because right now it feels a little too decent of an adaptation all things considered. Also that critics didn't pan this (major left leaning critics like Roeper) was suspicious to me. Expecting the dial to get turned up on the message at some point.

Cad said:

Thats fine, the point is you don't see shows anymore where black gangs are the criminals. All the crime shows are either off the air or totally neutered - The Rookie talked constantly about white supremacist gangs in LA (where like 95% of crimes are done by black and hispanic gangs), for example.

All the shows are going this way, which actually drives the rise of the "ranch" type Taylor Sheridan shows - you can realistically portray white bad guys! "Modern audiences" won't let you make a black gang crime show anymore, so this is the kind of shit they make instead.

Even if this is a very accurate portrayal of what happened here, the entire reason it's being made is so they can portray white people bad.

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Great post. This is how it works. People will defend it as "well they didn't entirely replace the cast" or "it wasn't all DEI wokester stuff" (see The Odyssey thread right now). But it's just pervasive enough for you to start accepting it. Then they push it a little further.

It's bizarre that people still don't understand the boiling the frog analogy.