4 out of 5

Created by: Davey Holmes

Wait, were you expecting this to be good?

Epix, the weirdo cable station that always hyped before movies and events, had tried to get into the original programming shindig with the underwhelming Berlin and tonally abrasive Graves, and now they were trying their hand at not only an Elmore Leonard book – which maybe we’re wondering how you serialize something like that in general – but a book that’d already been made into a movie with a pretty fair reception.  But we do have Chris O’Dowd, whom we all know brings an extra level of awesome to anything, so… maybe it’d be worth a watch.

And it was!  And more!

Initial responses seemed lukewarm, but I can only assume the same bias I had; from episode one, creator / main writer Davey Holmes and our selected series directors imbue Get Shorty with a complete sense of ownership.  That is, this was neither an adaptation of the book or a remake of the movie, but its own thing.  ‘Inspired by’ source material of a made man getting involved in the film business – only to have his mob connections follow him along – is certainly there, as is the general plot knife-twisting creativity Elmore employed in his work, but that DNA gives birth to something very fresh and very modern and very, very fun.  At the same time, the show smartly veers away from playing things straight for laughs, maintaining an underbelly of grittiness that keeps the stakes legit, and allows for richer characterizations.  We believe O’Dowd, as Miles Daly, in his passion for film and the motivations – primarily to find a sustainable straight path to woo back his estranged wife, Emma (Carolyn Dodd); we believe in Daly’s crony buddy, Louis (Sean Bridgers), and his ability to balance mob work with Mormonism; we believe Ray Romano, as producer Rick Moreweather, in his stumbling between trying to make a buck off of Daly’s film and… some amusing twists that are better left to view as they occur.  It’s undeniably a dark comedy, but it’s one that knows where the line is beyond which the jokes deflate tension, or a story becomes satire.  And that tonal tightrope walk is truer to Leonard than any straight adaptation could be.

Of course, there’s inevitably some filler with subplotting.  In-fighting with the mob and a roundabout interaction between Daly and his ex-wife’s current boyfriend too clearly just take up screentime, but thankfully the actors and the scripted interplay at least keep it entertaining.

So Epix done good with Get Shorty, and I guess we audiences eventually did alright as well, netting a second season.