J.K. Simmons, The Westies
MGM+No one knows for sure how the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen got its name, but it’s seemed apt for much of its history. Once home to slaughterhouses and tanneries, Hell’s Kitchen became an overcrowded, rough-edged place whose history often revolved around whatever gangs controlled it at any given point. From the 1890s to the 1910s, the Gopher Gang ran the place. A street gang that, like much of the neighborhood, was made up of Irish immigrants, the Gophers gave way to a series of competing successors. But by the mid-1960s a group called the Westies, a name they never chose or used, had taken control. Though vastly outnumbered by other organizations, most notably the Italian-run Gambino crime family, the Westies found ways to maintain a grip on their traditional turf through a combination of viciousness and compromise, a high-wire act that allowed the Westies to adjust to changing times — until it proved too difficult to sustain.
Created by Chris Bancato and Michael Panes, who previously collaborated on the series Godfather of Harlem and Hotel Cocaine, The Westies depicts a fictionalized version of the Westies’ existence at a turning point. Set at the cusp of the 1980s, the series opens with a scene demonstrating the management strategy of its longtime leader Eamon Sweeney (J.K. Simmons) at its most pitiless. As the series begins, Davey (Dan Reilly), one of Eamon’s men, has kidnapped a member of an Italian crew to hold him for ransom. This has, to this point, been a common practice in the neighborhood, but times have changed. Eamon realizes he needs to defuse the situation to keep the peace with the Westies’ rivals, a truce that allows Eamon to keep control over the construction of the massive, years-in-the-making Javits Center. To keep the Westies’ grip on the project, Sweeney performs a quick calculus and takes a drastic action to resolve the situation.
It won’t be the last time Eamon makes a hard choice in the name of business. Nor will it be the last such decision to make his heir apparent, Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney), question the choices made by the man he’s worshipped since he first started working for him at the age of 13. But both Jimmy and Eamon have other matters to worry about beyond diverging business philosophies.
ALSO READ: The complete guide to summer TV
For Jimmy that includes the return of his loose cannon best friend Mickey (Stanley Morgan), a Vietnam vet whose time in Bellevue has not entirely quieted his demons. Jimmy’s girlfriend, Bridget (Sarah Bolger), largely hides her own drama from Jimmy, but that doesn’t make it any less dangerous. A former, or maybe not former, member of the IRA, Bridget fled to the States (and changed her name) to evade capture for an act of terrorism. Though she now works for seemingly legitimate charities raising money for the Irish republican cause, she’s drawn back into the world she never fully left when she reunites with Brendan Cahill (Allen Leech), an IRA member who asks her to hide a military-grade weapon but declines to disclose his plans for it.
Meanwhile, Eamon has to deal with the revelation that Glenn Keenan (Titus Welliver), a once-heroic, now-corrupt cop he’s known his entire life, has been pressured to join a squad investigating the Gambino family led by federal agent Birdie Polk (Jessica Frances Dukes). Eamon hopes to turn this situation to his advantage, but he’s reluctant to honor Glenn’s sole request, that Eamon stay away from his estranged teenaged son Danny (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong). Also not helping matters: Maintaining peace with the Italians means working alongside a brash, up-and-coming lieutenant named John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headley).
The Westies
Like
- The fast-paced drama and rich setting
Dislike
- The lack of much emotional punch
The Westies‘ first episode starts a lot of narrative plates spinning, and the subsequent seven episodes of this first season keep them spinning skillfully, allowing each intersecting drama to play out against a vividly realized backdrop of the grungy New York of a few decades past. The series spares no unsavory detail and leaves no dark corner unexplored, from a butcher’s shop that does after-hours business disposing bodies to a disco that does business above a coke dealer’s bunker. It’s fast-paced, cleverly plotted, well played, and never less than compelling, which is more than enough to make it worth watching.
There’s a troubling absence, however. After The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and their many imitators, the soulful antihero became a TV cliche. The Westies‘ solution seems to be simply to leave out the soulful part of the equation. The cast skillfully realizes the characters, but the series doesn’t give viewers any reason to invest in them beyond wondering if they’ll get away with their latest scheme or squeeze out of their current jam. There’s plenty to see here, but little to feel. Much like Eamon, it’s cold beneath the surface no matter how hot the action gets.
That doesn’t really get in the way of The Westies working as a compelling crime drama, however, and Simmons and Welliver are especially magnetic whenever they’re on screen, bringing years of weariness to their characters and coupling it with a sense of unease about the uncertain futures awaiting them now that they’ve reached the far side of middle age. Simmons is especially good when paired with Allan-Headley, who plays Gotti as a smirking opportunist with no respect for anyone he perceives as standing in his way. Gotti offers a vision of a future in which Eamon may not have a place. Simmons memorably, wordlessly conveys the mix of rage and fear this inspires. (Another veteran, Richard Schiff, provides some late-season highlights as a seemingly harmless moneylender.)
The sense of history helps, too. Over the course of this first season Eamon has to deal with the cocaine trade, a product he’s tried to avoid but which now threatens to put him out of business if he doesn’t participate. By the end of these first eight episodes, The Westies has laid groundwork for future seasons that might double as a depiction of how the ’80s transformed New York in general and Hell’s Kitchen in particular, playing out the end of an era via the story of two generations of characters who have no idea their time is about to end.
Premieres: The first two episodes premiere Sunday, July 12 at 9/8c on MGM+, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly
Who’s in it: J.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney, Sarah Bolger
Who’s behind it: Chris Bancato and Michael Panes
For fans of: Intense, violent crime dramas with plenty of period detail
How many episodes we watched: 8 of 8