Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas #13: Boomtown

There aren't many "mainstream" cop shows on my list; you won't see any of the CSI's or L&O's. Its not because I actively hate those shows, but in my experience those shows are mostly about catching and cooking the bad guys, with very little room for overarching stories or character growth. I watched Law and Order reruns religiously in my sophomore year, but only because they came on at lunchtime so I could eat and watch 'em. I like NCIS a lot, yet I don't follow it or watch it often because I know it will be in re-runs perpetually; its more of a guilty pleasure that I'd watch more if I had a TV and more time. So, the normal cop shows don't really do much for my critical TV watching mood.

Boomtown (NBC, 2002-2003) was not a normal cop show.



The initial premise and buzz is what got me to tune in to the premiere episode, and it lived up to the hype. It had an unconventional episode plot where scenes were from varying character point-of-views similar to the "Game of Throne" books, plus the timeline wasn't linear. You might have flashbacks, flash-forwards, the comparison was to "Rashomon". It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, it was challenging to watch and slickly produced.

The show was set in Los Angeles, and followed the experiences of a motley group comprised of two detectives (played by Donnie Wahlberg and Mykelti Williamson), two beat cops who have no love lost for the detectives (Jason Gedrick and Gary Basaraba), a female EMT(Lana Parilla) with a mutual attraction to Donnie's character, a self-destructive DA (the brilliant Neil McDonough) and his part-time lover/full-time reporter (Nina Garbiras). They are all familiar with each other, they all have deep dark secrets and motivations, and in every episode, nothing is quite as it seemed.

While it was a case-of-the-week situation most times, incidents from past episodes informed events of future episodes. The glamorous Los Angeles setting was used to good effect, and the clashes between characters was always interesting and unpredictable. One of the standout episodes in my mind was a precursor to "The Departed" where the entire police station was on lockdown because of a gang informant who had infiltrated the police force (actually becoming a cop) and was ratting to his gang buddies. That was a bravura piece of writing and acting.

The show quickly found a groove and had a good run of strong storylines, great acting and excellent drama and was rewarded with a Peabody award and other award nominations. Naturally, it lagged in the ratings, wasn't promoted enough, and got messed around by NBC in the midst of their Zuckerberg/Silverman era of douchebaggery. Yes, I am still bitter about it. "Boomtown" had much potential, but got hiatused about 2 episodes into the second season while NBC ran reruns of Law and Order, then was canceled all-together and the remaining episodes burned off in December 2003. The only thing that pleased me about the situation is that NBC paid the karmic price for their actions by staying last in network rankings to this day. Nonetheless, the show lives on in DVD for a very low price, well worth checking out.

Boomtown was probably about five years ahead of its time. I think it would have been a great fit today for FX (creator Graham Yost went there with "Justified") but now we will never know...

Opening credits for Boomtown below


Fearless tells a story (Pilot ending, not season ending as labeled)


Joel tells a story (emmy reel, shouldabeen)


McNorris explains why he's an alcoholic mess (another emmy reel)


Now I'm just pissed off again. There's going to be at least one more show on this list that was cut too soon and is going to make me mad...