Posted on: Tuesday, February 4, 2003

NBC touts 'Kingpin' as distinctive new drama

By Lynn Elber
Associated Press

NBC is aggressively pushing "Kingpin," its new drug-cartel drama getting a tryout during the key February ratings sweeps.

It's a centerpiece of the network's schedule, with episodes airing at 9 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays through Feb. 18. NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker even called "Kingpin" Shakespearean in its depth.

"I don't think it'll be all that," David Mills, the series' executive producer, said with a modest laugh.

But he's unfazed by comparisons, Mills says — including to HBO's "The Sopranos" and the Oscar-winning film "Traffic," which have already broken ground on "Kingpin" themes of drugs, families and the criminal ties that bind and destroy.

"People can say whatever they want to now. They can say we ripped off 'Traffic,' they can say we ripped off 'The Sopranos,' " Mills said. "Four weeks from now, they're going to be talking about what 'Kingpin' is, not what it's similar to."

The first episodes reveal a taut drama with its own distinctive tone. "Kingpin" layers tragic inevitability and touches of farce with demanding complexity; you have to keep your eye on the action and relationships to keep up with the story.

The focus of the series is on Miguel Cadena (Yancey Arias), a Stanford-educated Mexican angling to head his extended family's drug-trafficking operation.

Standing behind Cadena, and pushing him hard toward the top of the criminal heap, is his ambitious American wife, Marlene (Sheryl Lee). Cadena's rough-and-tumble brother, Chato (Bobby Cannavale), is another ally. U.S. federal agents and assorted relatives are among the obstacles.

Like "The Sopranos," "Kingpin" features a morally conflicted central figure who revels in power and money but must rationalize how he gains them. Like "Traffic," the series connects the dots between a foreign drug cartel and U.S. users and sellers.

The parallels end there, said Zucker, who considers the Cadena character evocative of "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" in his emotional makeup and actions.

"Where some see 'Sopranos,' I see Shakespeare," Zucker told reporters at a recent news conference.

There are echoes of the Bard when Mills ("The Corner," "ER") describes his vision for "Kingpin."

"The drug business, to me, is merely a big canvas on which to play these big themes and big high-stakes stories of pride and greed and ambition and self-delusion and betrayal," he said. "Five hundred years ago, it would have been European royal families."

An uncle falls victim to his nephews' ambitions in one scene, while another shows a drug lord killed awaiting plastic surgery (tweaking the classic barbershop-chair deaths of towel-swaddled mobsters).

NBC was known to be in the market for a drama that could equal HBO's critically acclaimed mob drama without cable's freedom to push the boundaries of language, violence and nudity.

Although a racier version of "Kingpin" was shot for Bravo, the NBC-owned cable channel, the broadcast version is relatively tame when it comes to sex and language. Violence is mostly suggested, although there are some gory depictions of its aftermath. (The Bravo edition will air in March.)

NBC ordered six episodes of "Kingpin" and six more scripts are ready to be filmed if the network is pleased with the initial performance, Mills said.