TVSquad

(S01E01) Mark 8:36: "What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"

Showtime's answer to The Sopranos and The Wire premiers, and it is all about family. Family Tawwwmmy! Family! "Everybody knows how important that is to you," a union rep and mob flunky tells nice-brother-with-a-dark-side Tom Caffee (Jason Clarke).  He is the slightly dough-faced one, an elected state-representative about to blackmailed by the mob boss Freddie Cork (Kevin Chapman) into handing over some snowplow contracts in order to save his brother's life.

Or something like that.

I like Tom immediately, if only because I am slightly dough-faced myself.  Mike, the other Caffee brother, the chiseled, hunky one, is played by the another Jason (Jason Isaacs). He is the bad brother with a good side. They call him Three "Pawt" Mike, cause he plays three parts: judge, jury & executioner. Maybe Four-Parts Mike is more appropriate if you include surgeon: Quentin Tarantino would appreciate what Mikey can do with an ear. The lads are products of all-white, blue-collar neighborhood "The Hill," - that's the mean streets of Providence, Rhode Island to you and me, but I don't see Mike Farrell anywhere.
Mike Caffee is back from a seven-year powder after a hit was put out on him. He might be back to retake control of The Hill. If anyone is feeling a little petty about vying for kingpinship of the country's teeny-tiniest state, they are not letting on. 

The West Wing's Annabeth Gish plays an (apparently) upstanding and loyal politician's wife. How long will it be before we learn that, though she married Tommy, she really carries a flame for Mikey -- her  weekly hook-up at a cruddy motel with a non-descript neighborhood mook, notwithstanding?

First half of this thing, I was on the fence: we get what are already standard premium-cable show elements: a few federal agents, a crass unlikable mother, the mob, the unions, the corrupt local aldermen, the racial tensions, the periodic shovels meeting heads, baseball bats meeting kneecaps, foreheads slammed against the odd bar top or car hood, and assorted deals with various devils. But then things took a turn. In a wtf moment , Mike delivers a severed ear to a near-stranger as a token of affection; Tommy tells the mob boss he can't have his snowplow contracts because Tommy doesn't really care what happens to his brother, and then off-handedly muscles a contractor into fixing his own home's failing wiring for free. Corruption touches everything, and I'm not sure if the brothers are cooking something up together or are going to end up on different sides. Better yet -- I'm not sure they have any idea themselves.

See ya' next week, Tawmmy-boy.