From creator David Simon ('Treme' and 'The Wire') and director Paul Haggis ('Crash'), and based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Lisa Belkin, this six-part miniseries explores notions of home, race and community through the lives of elected officials, bureaucrats, activists and ordinary citizens in Yonkers, NY.
In an America generations removed from the greatest civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the young mayor (Oscar Isaac) of a mid-sized American city is faced with a federal court order that says he must build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of his town. His attempt to do so tears the entire city apart, paralyzes the municipal government and, ultimately, destroys the mayor and his political future.
In addition to Oscar Isaac, 'Show Me a Hero' stars Catherine Keener, Alfred Molina, Winona Ryder, LaTanya Richardson-Jackson, Bob Balaban and Jim Belushi
The series will debut Aug. 16
Are you kiddng me? I'm sure the first trailer for The Wire looked just as uneventful and we all know how that turned out. It's David Simon baby! And Oscar Isaac is on fire rght now, I see the new Pacino in him in a realtively close future. Of course I'm gonna watch this
Could be really interesting, especially with this creator. Amazing that an entire city could hold on to segregation until the mid '80s. A bit more on the subject from Wikipedia:
Quote:
In 1960, the Census Bureau reported Yonkers's population as 95.8% white and 4.0% black.[9] The city's struggles with racial discrimination and segregation were highlighted in a decades-long federal lawsuit. After a 1985 decision and an unsuccessful appeal, Yonkers' schools were integrated in 1988. The federal judge, Leonard B. Sand ruled that Yonkers had engaged in institutional segregation in housing and school policies for over 40 years and tied the illegal concentration of public housing and private housing discrimination to the city's resistance to ending racial isolation in its public schools.[citation needed]
In the 1980s and 1990s, Yonkers developed a national reputation for racial tension, based on a long-term battle between the City of Yonkers and the NAACP over the building of subsidized low-income housing projects. The City planned to use federal funding for urban renewal efforts within Downtown Yonkers exclusively; other groups, led by the NAACP, felt that the resulting concentration of low-income housing in traditionally poor neighborhoods perpetuated poverty. The climax of the battle came when United States district court Judge Leonard Sand imposed a fine on Yonkers which started at $1 and doubled every day until the City capitulated to the federally mandated plan. Over twenty years later, Yonkers' public school system is now among the worst performing in New York State, and private-school enrollment has spiked sharply. After the mandate, crime in Downtown Yonkers increased dramatically and many local homeowners suffered a substantial decrease in property values. Then-mayor Nicholas C. Wasicsko, in his first term, fought to save the city from financial disaster and bring about unity. Mayor Nicholas C. Wasicsko was the youngest mayor elected to the City of Yonkers in 1987 at age of 28. He was a lonely figure in city politics at the time, which was scarred with the stigma of the "Balkanization of Yonkers". He succeeded in helping to end the city's contempt of the courts, but was voted out of office as a result.
Yonkers moved to the center of national/international attention during the summer of 1988, when the city was found in contempt of the federal courts, after it refused to build promised municipal public housing in the eastern portions of the city. It had earlier agreed to do so in a consent decree, after losing the appeal in 1987. Being fined one dollar, doubling every day until the council passed the ordinance set out in the consent decree, Yonkers remained in contempt of the courts until September 9, 1988. On that date, the City Council relented, in the wake of library closures, sanitation cutbacks, while looking at massive city layoffs, which would have been required to continue its resistance to desegregation
So far, I like it a lot. The show's got that pleasant Simon feel to it, extremely believable, presenting complex social issues and heavily focusing on the various characters (with different backgrounds) and their interactions. Acting in general as per tradition is really good too, especially Oscar Isaac who's nailing it (as he always does).
The tones are familiar, whereas the pacing is slightly different than the usual, mostly because it's a mini-series and time is precious.
I've seen the first 3 episodes now and it's good, but I wouldn't say really good. The pacing is a bit off imo (it's sometimes hard to tell how much time happened in between scenes), and the mexican women with her children seem to add absolutely nothing to the story, same with the half blind women. Maybe there is still some useful story in the later three parts but I'm not too convinced.
Anyway, some really good performances from many people in this ensemble (I was shocked to realize that was Catherine Keener as the Dorman lady ), even though most of the characters were unlikeable, including the main one, but Isaac was stellar in the job of portraying that poor lost soul. I think we can continue expecting even better things from him in the future. I still see him potentially as the new Pacino.
High quality mini-series based on real events, but on the level of The Wire it was not, not even close
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The show's got that pleasant Simon feel to it, extremely believable, presenting complex social issues and heavily focusing on the various characters (with different backgrounds) and their interactions. Acting in general as per tradition is really good too, especially Oscar Isaac who's nailing it (as he always does).
Dominican.
), even though most of the characters were unlikeable, including the main one, but Isaac was stellar in the job of portraying that poor lost soul. I think we can continue expecting even better things from him in the future. I still see him potentially as the new Pacino.
