'Boomtown' wins praise, no guarantees for future

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Donnie Wahlberg, left, portrays Detective Joel Stevens, and Mykelti Williamson is Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith, in a scene from Sunday's "Boomtown." NBC

" 'Boomtown' is what NBC stands for," says network president Jeff Zucker. "It's the quality of 'St. Elsewhere' and 'Hill Street Blues,' and 'L.A. Law' and 'The West Wing.' "

Several of those shows teetered near cancellation in their first seasons. Now "Boomtown" is in the same predicament.

Zucker has ordered only 18 episodes instead of the usual 22. He considers March a "relaunch," when viewers may or may not discover this gem.

The problem is that "Boomtown" tries to do a great deal. "It's a very, very ambitious show," says producer-director Jon Avnet.

That creates obstacles. "You can't explain 'Boomtown' in a single-sentence pitch phrase," says Mykelti Williamson, one of the show's stars.

Graham Yost, who wrote "Speed" and two episodes of "Band of Brothers," created the show. He created a world focused on Los Angeles law enforcement officials.

There are detectives (Donnie Wahlberg and Williamson) and uniform cops (Jason Gedrick and Gary Basaraba). Others include a paramedic (Lana Parrilla), an ambitious assistant district attorney (Neal McDonough) and a sharp reporter (Nina Garbiras).

Wahlberg got the offer to play LAPD Detective Joel Stevens in the "Boomtown" pilot a year ago, while in Canada shooting Stephen King's "Dreamcatcher" (which opens in theaters in March).

"I was in a whole other space," says Wahlberg as he recalls the challenge of shifting gears during a break midway through the film to portray the TV show's gifted but troubled lawman.

"The character is supposed to be 30 years old, but he's supposed to feel a lot of weight," says Wahlberg, himself 33. "Had I not had a rough last few years, maybe it wouldn't resonate in my face, and maybe that would make me not the right person for the character."

Wahlberg's character is a a pro whose furrowed brow masks tragedy including a suicidal wife and their deceased newborn child.

"The broken story interweaving all these characters and going back and forth in time — phenomenal material!" hails Wahlberg.

Many episodes will stop and start the story often to tell the viewpoints of any of the seven primary characters, criminals or victims.

The combination of artfulness and action has worked well. When the Electronic Media trade paper polled critics, "Boomtown" was listed as the fourth-best series overall and easily the best new one.

The American Film Institute included "Boomtown" in a list of the year's 10 top shows on TV.

"It was really just a nice, warm feeling to be embraced by the AFI that way," Basaraba says.

Such affection has its limits. "I've been on a couple other shows where your dearest relatives could not have written better reviews," Gedrick says. "Yet, the network (canceled them)."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.