Show Me a Hero

Congrats to HBO for investing in the mini series format! Cheers to 'Show me a hero' and 'Mildred Pierce'. Superb writting and acting!

Oscar Isaac. WOW! The man deserves some kind of award.

oscar isaac is realy awesome here

I have to say I sort of screwed myself here; my expectations were sky-high.

This is a compelling, affecting and incredibly relevant miniseries about a public housing crisis in Yonkers in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. (I say it’s relevant because as it was airing, a government employee has made the news refusing to uphold the law. Also, it is incredibly relevant given the on-going war on black people in the US.) It is stocked with a whole bunch of great and name actors playing fairly insignificant roles, which results in a an incredible sense of place and great characterizations. With the exception of one man – and you’ll know him when you see him, trust me – the cast is utterly fantastic, and that helps a lot.

And the reason I say the cast helps is that this is a preachy, preachy show. Maybe I’ve changed, but I don’t remember The Wire or Generation Kill being like this. As the girlfriend points out, it’s like they don’t have faith in the audience: scenes last a beat too long to make sure we get the point. I want to blame this on Haggis – a director I do not admire – but he is not the problem. Actually, he’s one of the series’ strengths, along with its excellent cast.

This sounds like I didn’t like it, and that’s not true. It’s mostly excellent. Save one unnecessary set of shots at the very end, the last episode is extremely poignant and powerful and there are moments throughout the series that ring way too true and really provoke you to think about how the more things change, the more they stay the same. But somebody should have toned down the message just a tad. It’s too heavy-handed to be a classic.

I feel like David Simon's can't disappoint me, even if it's not that great it's still good to watch. As a side note, you **have to** watch this until the end.

Another excellent, daring and absolutely fabulous work of David Simon, creator of 'The Wire' and so many other quality TV series. Extremely political, as always, and an almost to the letter depiction of the events. Racism, segregation, poverty, politics machinations, corruption, class issues, social and political structure problems addressed, not by lecturing us but as a piece of our lives. If you liked 'The Wire', you'll love this one. Don't miss it. I gave it a 10, with all of my heart.

What a beautiful show. Tense, gripping, funny, moving. It shows the addictive side of politics and it's also great in its depiction of many different stories with a very realistic touch, never pushing too much on the melodrama. Also, is there a better actor than Oscar Isaac right now?