steve-575 "Boomtown" was about as close to a perfect drama as you will find on television. The show had everything that that you'd want in a television drama: great ensemble cast, terrific acting, intriguing characters, entertaining and edgy story lines, sharp dialog, near-perfect direction and originality. Its only drawback, if you consider it a drawback, was that it required too much thinking for the average viewer. Proof of that is the fact that mindless garbage like "Fear Factor" stayed on NBC for five seasons while a thought-provoking show like "Boomtown" barely lasted more than one season. Each week stories focused on a particular storyline from multiple points of view, each one being different. The stories centered around seven characters: two detectives, two uniform cops, a paramedic, a news reporter and an attorney. Every character was very multi-dimensional, with each having their flaws and vulnerabilities. Joel Stevens, terrifically played by Donnie Wahlberg, was the serious and sometimes hotheaded detective who put on a brave face despite having to deal with the death of his newborn baby and his wife's subsequent suicide attempt. His job always seemed to be interfering with his family life. "Fearless" was a former Desert Storm soldier turned detective who lived life to the fullest. He lived out of a motel, had sex with prostitutes, told war stories, and even had a list of things that he would like to do before he died. Ray Heckler was the old-school cop who was under close investigation for corruption. Although he often spoke too often and frequently put his foot in his mouth, he was one of the most respected cops on the squad. David McNaughton was the cocky district attorney who had problems with alcoholism and fidelity. A "human train wreck", he was universally despised by just about everyone on the squad. Teresa Ortiz was the sensitive and caring EMT who really took things she saw to heart. In one episode, she shot a hostage taker and then felt it necessary to try and revive him. Andrea Little was an attractive and persistent news reporter who always seemed to be first on the scene of a breaking story, thanks to her inside source, David NcNaughton, with whom she was carrying on a secret affair with. She lived lavishly thanks to a trust fund left by her wealthy parents. Tom Turcotte was a young hotshot cop who had the unenviable task of having to follow in the footsteps of his tough father. He was really the only character that was never fully developed, as there were some moments later in the first season where you doubted if he was one of the good guys. The recurring theme of the show was that "Things aren't always as they same". A typical episode would start off with a sequence of events and what followed would explain what led up to that point through each character's point of view. Many episodes would end with some kind of shocking revelation. That same theme applied to a lot the characters, as with episode, viewers would learn more about each character and there was lot more to them than what meets the eye.After the first season, despite marginal ratings NBC decided to renew "Boomtown". However, it was moved from its cushy Sunday night slot to a tougher Friday night slot and the format was retooled, making it easier for the viewer to follow. The producers essentially abandoned the unique point of view storyteller that made the show so terrific in its first season. In an effort to boost ratings, the producers brought in Vanessa Williams as detective, Katherine Pierce. In order to make room for her, they axed Andrea Little, who was key part of the show. Though the show was still watchable, it suffered a decline in quality (and ratings). Not surprisingly, the new format did not lead to a "boom" in the ratings and the show was canceled."Boomtown" is a prime example of a terrific show that should been given more of a chance to build an audience. Instead of flooding the airwaves with cheap reality garbage, networks need to make more of an effort to keep quality programs on the air even if they don't generate huge ratings from the start. A good, quality show can generate good word of mouth, which in turn may lead to improved ratings in the long run. "Boomtown" would have been more suited to air on F/X as it would have fit in better with the network's edgier series and would not have had the high expectations that it did on NBC.If you happen to come upon the first season of "Boomtown" on DVD for a reasonable price, I would highly recommend buying it. You will be both amazed and depressed at the same time. You'll be amazed at how great of a dramatic series that it was and depressed at how NBC could cancel such a promising series with such a great cast.

Scott Ellington I missed the broadcast, serialized weekly television presentation and picked up Season 1 at the suggestion of a friend. I think the program was intended to present a city's infrastructure powered by imperfect people employed in occupations that make impossible demands upon their personal lives. I think we were given a unique cops & lawyers show as a wonderful compromise between what was intended and that which network would allow. Unlike Paris, London and Vienna, Los Angeles, though similarly sired by a great river, now has "a concrete drainage ditch" where that great river once was. Likewise, the multiplicity of central characters are revealed in the course of Season 1 to be significantly different from the persons they appeared to be at the beginning of the series. Their imperfections and the enormous burdens borne by each open slowly through the course of eighteen episodes into a fragrant blossom of great power that smells of intense humanity and the brilliant collaboration of writers, directors and more conventionally "technical" artists of every description. I return to Boomtown frequently, simply because its significantly better than broadcast, serialized, weekly television presentations, and it probably always will be.

liquidcelluloid-1 Network: NBC; Genre: Drama; Content Rating: TV-14; Available: on DVD; Classification: Modern Classic (Star range: 1 - 5); Season Reviewed: Complete Series (2 seasons)Creator Graham Yost ('Band of Brothers') probably should have taken his 'Boomtown' to HBO, where it's edgier whims would have been more at home, instead of NBC – a network with such a long history of recklessly mismanaging shows the ultimate demise the series took at the network's hands is almost a forgone conclusion. 'Boomtown' was surely the best new show of the 2002 TV season.'Boomtown' tells the story of one crime from multiple perspectives, employing what movie purists refer to as The 'Rashomon' style. I will go out on a limb and boldly say that in the future this show might be the reference point when referring to this style on TV. The ensemble is tightly wound. We follow two detectives: Joel (Donnie Wahlberg) struggling with the death of his child and suicidal wife, and 'Fearless' (the massively underrated Mykelti Williamson) a Gulf War veteran whose friend took a bullet for him. Around them are two cops (Gary Basaraba, and Jason Gedrick), a paramedic (Lana Parilla), a defense attorney (Neal McDonough in a star-making, breakout performance), the criminals themselves and a journalist (Nina Garbiras). Boasting flawed heroes, 'Boomtown' has a richly layered tapestry of characters that the show loves to dig down and explore. Walburg and Williamson are terrific leads and in Walburg's case, surprisingly so. But it's McDonough who is given the wild card role as the ultimate shifty DA, David McNorris. Yost knows exactly where to have him pop up in the story and is constantly yanking us around regarding where his loyalties lie. McDonough is a blast to watch, wonderfully chewing up every second of screen time with this galvanizing performance. The fact that this guy got Emmy snubbed is all the proof you need as to how out of touch and on auto-pilot the Academy is. This is an engrossing series that transcends the limits of the usual cop drama. Watching Yost and his ensemble of writers cleverly pulling all the strands of the episodes together in the final minutes is satisfying in a way that evokes the kind of hair-raising, invigorating feeling you only get from great storytelling. A work from creators that obviously love what they are doing and strive in the smallest details to make something we can be proud of. 'Boomtown' looks as good, if not better, than most premium cable series and, what the hell, most movies too. The theatrical cinematography, the vibrant color palette and the subtle, not overdone, use of little tricks like sped up and reversed time are woven into the show beautifully. The action scenes are also extraordinarily well staged with Bennett Salvay's terrific music thumping them along. 'Boomtown' is just as exciting a visceral experience as it is an intriguing character drama and time shifting puzzle. I can't remember the last time a TV show's opening title sequence took my breath away. The show took a lot of risks and there is a lot of variety amongst the episodes. 'Boomtown' is a standout from every other cop show on TV today with it's unmistakable fluid style. I admire the show's willingness to take chances and am unspeakably grateful for the way it rejects both the 'ripped from the headlines' stories focusing more on evidence and the 'gritty cop drama' mold. But sometimes the lighter tone feels off. For example, 'Insured by Smith & Wesson' (Ray meets his TV idol during a hostage standoff in sporting goods store) or 'Coyote' (a homeless man thinks he is a dog) might seem just silly to the average cop show viewer. But then there are episodes like 'All Hallow's Eve', 'Storm Watch' and 'Home Invasion' that are near masterpieces of acting, writing and directing. Often times the show succeeds in pulling out the rug and leaving us on a shocking, even nasty, final-second twist. The show's second season "re-tooling" stands as one of the most unbelievable, egregious and disgusting cases of network interference in recent memory. NBC programming president Jeff Zucker and his band of merry men apparently decided that if this show was going to make it they needed to personally reach under the hood and rip out everything that made it so unique and so entertaining in the first place. That included throwing out the original music, the flawed heroes, the darker story lines, the multi-episode story arcs and, of course, the multiple perspective story-telling style in a transparent effort make the show as much like 'Law & Order' as possible. The show predictably nose-dived in the ratings after their much-hyped, totally un-watchable second season premiere 'For Love of Money' (a shameless network attempt to introduce Vanessa Williams to the cast). The cast who still gave it 110%, but the characters all felt hollowed out. It's only McDonough who proves to be back in full force in the cold opening of 'Inadmissible'. The crew wrote around the shackles as best they could resulting in some pretty good episodes in the abbreviated second season, but the monkey on their back is just too big. Its became victim of a network that whines constantly about how they want something edgy and then stomp it out like a flaming bag when they get it. Do networks honestly look at viewership flight away from them and toward cable and deduce that they need less cable-like shows and more reality shows?No matter. This was a brilliantly crafted show that deserved a long life. It was pure unadulterated entertainment that bristled with intelligence, excitement and terrific performances. One of the best cop dramas in memory and the genre(and NBC) is worse off without it. * * * * ½ / 5

JackBauerPowerHour So many words to describe how great BOOMTOWN is. The 1st Season was truly Brilliant with great writting on every episode, amazing directing, wonderful characters, a beautiful theme song and top notch acting by all the actors. Seeing this show for the first time, I couldn't believe what I was watching. Neal McDonough performance as the Deputy DA David McNorris is nothing but Astonishing . Episode by Episode this show got more smarter and more addictive. This was the best show on TV in 2001-2002 and also the best I have seen in years, this also should of been nominated for every EMMY nomination there is but it wasn't. The 2nd Season of Boomtown was not better than season one but it was just as great. Nina Garbiras was not in the show any more, she was replace with Vanessa Williams who played the sometimes tough Katherine Pierce. The writting was just intelligent as ever, you still cared about the characters deeply, in the second episode you see David McNorris fighting his inner demons. When NBC put this show on hiatus because poor ratings(even tough NBC didn't promote at all). In November NBC cancelled the show, me and every other fan were very p**sed about this but in mid december I heard that they were gonna air the four remaining episodes of the series. I was very happy, I loved the little marathon they had on saturday and was very sad to see the final Boomtown episode. This was the type of show you could use the word "Great", even tough is not on no more this will never be forgotten by real TV viewers.(1st Season=A+)(2nd Season=A-).