Reviewing Starz's Boss - Season One

Starz's latest venture into the world of drama series takes us to Chicago where Dr Frasier Crane er, Kelsey Grammar is the mayor, or as the series title might suggest, the Boss. I stayed away from the this show while it was actually 'on the air' so to speak because quite frankly, I hadn't heard many good things about it. Corrupt politics? check. An aging leader desperately clinging to power? check. An overzealous beat writer trying to bring down the whole damn system?!? Yea stop me when you've heard an original idea. Still though, thanks to On Demand and a slow weekend I was able to sift through the eight episodes of season one. And considering how low my expectations were going in, I was pleasantly surprised to find a show that was able to hold my attention fairly well. Now I'm certainly not suggesting that this is the next great show or anything like that but I'll stick around for season two.

 Tom Kane (Grammar), the aging but very powerful Mayor of Chicago, takes you on a tour of the political underbelly. There's corruption, brides, coercion, hallucinations, mental instability, backstabbing, drugs, humiliation, racial/ethnic tension, murder and even some mutilation thrown in just to make sure no one gets bored. The basic story line though is that Kane has a rare brain disease that will incapacitate and kill him within three to five years and not only does Kane refuse to tell anyone of his condition (at least not right away), he's also not stepping down. He's determined to 'go out on top' and leave a lasting legacy. Of course his deteriorating condition (which includes the shakes, hallucinations, memory loss and short periods where he basically stares off into space) is causing problems, as is his ambition plans to hand pick the next Governor of Illinois (more on that later). Along the way we find out Kane and his wife basically have nothing to do with each other outside of public functions, although she's just as power hungry as he is, and that the two of them more or less disowned their drug using daughter because it might hamper their political aspirations. Kane's inner circle includes a long time trusted advisor, who seems unconditionally loyal (which should have spelled out spoiler now that I think about it), and a hottie who's pretty easy on the eyes. As you can imagine there are plenty of underlings in the political wheel that are pretty tired of being under Kane's thumb and their looking to move up as well. We could probably all write the story from there. So in my usual fashion, here's the breakdown of season one:

The Good:

• Kelsey Grammar (aka Tom Kane) delivers a very solid performance and I'm not the only one who thinks so considering he was nominated for a Golden Globe. There is absolutely none of the comedic genius that we're used to seeing from Grammar but you don't miss it at all. He runs the gambit of emotions and doesn't miss a beat. One minute he's crying on the floor of his office bathroom because he's afraid someone will find out his dark secret and he'll lose the most important thing in his life: power. And the next minute he's slapping an Alderman around his office or making a potential future Governor get on his knees and beg for forgiveness.
• If there are two things that make this series unique, it's the darkness and the close up or odd camera shots. First the darkness because it's the overwhelming emotion of the entire series. There's not a single character in the entire series who's happy or satisfied with their place in life. Everyone wants more and there's really no limits that they're willing to go to in order to climb the next rung of the ladder. Even the overzealous and idealistic beat writer, who's probably the easiest to sympathize with, sells out his editor the first chance he gets. Kane's wife tries to behind her own husbands back to overthrow him then sleeps with a creepy old man at the end to prove her loyalty once she's discovered. Kane's daughter, a former drug addict turned priest (although she starts using again and ends up dating a drug dealer) has a multitude of issues to deal with including a fair share of abandonment issues. All in all, it's just dark. I couldn't even watch this show in the middle of the day. It's best served at night with all possible lights off. Oh yea and the camera shots, they're just odd or I guess unique depending on how your view. It's kind of hard to describe without sounding like it's being filmed by a genius 8 year old. I say that because it would zoom in on random body parts (a quivering lip, shaking hand, back or a head or the  small of a back) for no apparent reason but at the same time after the first episode they didn't really bother me for some reason. So maybe it's genius, maybe it's childish. Either way I couldn't tell.

The Bad:

• As I implied above, my first negative thought with this series is that it's nothing we haven't seen before. Corrupt politics, conspiring in dark corners, powerful people doing terrible things and an aging lead character who will do anything not to lose the one thing that's defined his life; control. Publicly Kane is seen as a pretty popular mayor who's done his fair share of good for the city of Chicago but who's also not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty when duty calls. Just imagine Tony Soprano or perhaps Clay Morrow as the mayor of Chicago and you've got a pretty good idea of Boss (especially if you consider Soprano's issues in therapy and Morrow's deteriorating hands). They all have, in varying degrees, some medical condition threatening their empire but they refuse to admit defeat or fade gracefully into the shadows. 
• My other big question with Boss is the power that Kane has as mayor. Now I'm clearly not in politics but it doesn't seem feasible to me that the mayor of a city, even a metropolis like Chicago, would have so much power, even over the Governor of his state. He literally has, at different times, the current and future Governor of the state begging for forgiveness in his office. And not only does he have power over the Governor but also a hit man on the payroll who sneaks around like some kind of anti-super hero intimidating and/or killing anyone who has even the possibility of posing a threat (including the unsuspecting doctor who diagnosed Kane's brain disease). 

The Ugly:

• Last but certainly not least, it might be time to just accept the fact that the recent trend of series based around unlikeable characters simply aren't going anywhere. In my opinion though, Boss takes it to a whole new level because there isn't a single character worth rooting for or even one with which to sympathize. At least with shows like SOA, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire and Nip/Tuck there's at least one character with even the smallest amount of redeeming value. One character, who might still commit the most terrible acts, but at their core you believe there is something more than the monster on screen and you hold out hope that the good inside of them will defeat their struggle with the demands of power or fame or family. There is no one like this in Boss though. Every single one of the main characters seem 100% totally committed to themselves and their pursuit of power and/or control. There was a slight glimmer of hope for Kane about two episodes long when he reconnects with his daughter, tells her of his condition and seems genuine about working to rebuild what they had lost. But in the end, he uses her like a pawn, having her caught up in a drug raid, to generate public sympathy and take the heat off a media blitz, hell bent on running him out of office. In the end it was a brilliant move that worked but also illustrated just how cold hearted and self preserving this man has come to be.

Ultimately, I don't think Boss is a great show but I'm sort of fascinated to see where this thing goes. I despise the characters enough that I'm going to tune in hoping to see them fail, and maybe that's the genius of the writers. How long can Kane really hold onto power in his condition because it seems to be deteriorating at a rapid pace? Now that he's isolated himself or eliminated his inner circle, is there anyone he can trust? However it turns out, I'll be there to see it. What did you think of the first season of Boss?