Brotherhood, Season Two. Out tomorrow. (********8/10)
Paramount Home Entertainment has been coming out with some of the best new TV shows on DVD of late. Dexter, Californication, and many others. And now, on October 7th, they are bringing out another. Brotherhood is amazing. Sort of a Sopranos thing in that it involves mob bosses and contract killings and turf wars and that kind of thing. The main difference here is that the main characters are Irish instead of Italian. Which is fine, except after watching the first disc of Season Two, I started to talk with a bit of an Irish accent. And I started calling my parents “me ma” and “me da”. And my Irish accent is terrible. So my girlfriend got irritated.
After watching the second disc (the next four episodes), I developed a hankering for some Jameson’s Irish whiskey, and headed out to the liquor store. This might be the most effective product placement I have ever seen on TV. In every episode, there seems to be at least one character drinking Jameson’s. Sometimes it’s a cop who’s on duty. Sometimes it’s a hitman having breakfast. And sometimes it’s an old lady who just really needs to get drunk. But at every moment in the world of Brotherhood, someone somewhere is drinking Jameson’s. Thankfully, this got me buzzed for the last two episodes on the third disc, and I didn’t end up acting on my impulse to start killing people. And judging by how bad my Irish accent was, I can only assume I would have been pretty bad at killing people as well, and I would have ended up in prison, and I wouldn’t be here to write this review.
There is just so much going on in this show. There is a cop whose wife has left him, and he spirals downward on a path of self-destruction until finally he’s given but one way out. Inform on his family, or he’s finished. There’s Tommy, a politician whose ties to his own family are just about his only weakness in the political arena. And then there’s Michael, Tommy’s brother. He is the tough guy, bad-ass killer for hire, working for mob boss Freddy. Last season, Freddy attempted to eliminate Michael by having him beaten to death. Of course, Michael didn’t die, and he still doesn’t know that it was his boss that tried to kill him. Now he’s back at work, doing his job, killing folks, while working for the man who crushed in his skull. Because of the beating, Michael has suffered some brain damage, and is prone to blackouts and slightly erratic behaviour.
And then there are the supporting characters. A rich, powerful cast of terrific actors and beautiful women keep Season Two of Brotherhood moving along a a steady, measured, but incredibly compelling pace. Murder, romance, jealousy, whiskey and politics. One of the best shows on television.