3 out of 5

Creator: Cris Cole

Covers through season 2

It’s incredibly normal; it’s just odd enough.  Mad Dogs is an odd show in that it could be horrible… but isn’t.  There’s not exactly one moment that grabs your interest or any one character whose story arc you want to see unfold any moreso than any other, and for every somewhat surreal moment that tickles yer fancy, there are minutes and minutes of such normalcy that you’re wondering how this will tie together.  Which is how Cris Cole has made this typical drama (at its highest level) about for mates growing older and trying to reunderstand their lives into something which keeps you watching: he’s allowed it to not be a TV show.  The 8 episodes of two seasons cover an amazing amount of scope, and yet it’s not structured so much for bite sized plot pieces.  You can sort of pick it up anywhere, because episode to episode is essentially ‘dudes in trouble get themselves out of some trouble and into other troubles’, but by the same token the long-term plot that started from the first minutes of episode one hasn’t yet ended.  And by giving each of his principles ample space for personality, the flow of that plot feels organic and not forced by television mechanics (over-elongated red herrings, things everyone knows are bad decisions which distract us for two or three eps).

So: four friends visit a fifth friend – Alvo – in Spain (? right?  I’m horrible at locations.).  The four friends are pretty normal blokes – some poorer than another in the group, some more ‘logical’ or more ‘risk-taking’, but all incredibly flawed and stupid in that human way that we’re all stupid.  Their dreams and desires are vague.  They are happy or sad, or really don’t know.  All of which comes under the scrutiny of their madly rich fifth friend, who seems to come more and more unhinged over the vacation, until, during a particularly troubling evening when all the friends are gathered at their host’s villa, a masked man comes in with a gun and assassinates Alvo.  …And the boys find themselves wrapped up in an increasingly odd or complicated or ridiculous string of drug-trades, murders, and etc.

There is a bit of a hiccup at the start for Cris to initiate the journey for his four characters, since they need to be on the run from something and upping the paranoia such that they don’t report the murder takes some plot tip-toeing.  But with this main piece in place, the rest blooms: our characters are frequently brash and bold and weak and afraid, making impulsive, human decisions that get them from point A to point B but at the cost of never really being done with the journey.

While impressed with the structure of the show, it’s hard to say if we’re supposed to like any of these characters.  Two of them are frequently babies or jerks, and all of them have moments of such incredible normalness that there’s hardly a hook to grab on to.  That’s not to say that they’re so normal that you’re ashamed to identify with them, just to say that they’re so normal you’re sometimes uncertain of why you’re watching.  The guys bicker amongst each other and then make up like every dumbass dude crew you’ve seen.  It’s accurate, but comes at the cost of making the show fall back on its plotting to carry you along.  Which isn’t a bad thing – see my blabber-roo above – though there are moments where things come together perfectly, the tensions in sync and lightbulbs go on above everyone’s head and you’re nervous right along with the group regarding how things will go – that you suspect there was a great show just a few steps out from what we’re watching, that actually made us think when we would turn away instead of watching all the ‘thinking’ done for us on screen.

Going into season three, which seems to perhaps show some ramifications of the boys’ choices, might prove the final leap Cole was intending by starting things out in such a slow ramp up.  I wouldn’t say ‘Mad Dogs’ is must see TV, but it’s television to keep your eye on, and it’s an impressive dedication to a style and posture that we don’t often get to see on the small screen.