I Wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder What ILX Thinks of "CRIME STORY"

http://www.edrobertson.com/images/Crime_Story_cast.jpg

Due to Farina's passing, I screened/rescreened the first season, finishing it last night. Quality goods for the most part, the main arc is pretty addictive, so much so that when there's an attempt to branch off, it just doesn't work as well. There's even a gag about this later on, with the chief getting after Farina for leaving the scene of a hostage standoff (the stand-alone plotline of the ep, with LORRAINE BRACCO) to go across state lines to bust main arc participant Frank Holman (the "Jewish Rockabilly Burglar" played by Ted Levine).

This was also a show that loved it's recaps. There's even an ep that--I shit you not--is 2/3's recaps before throwing in a new scene, then another recapped scene, and then another 12 or so minutes of new material--oh, those days before recap blogs & episode streaming!

Anthony Denison's pompadour was an engineering marvel:

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this is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Time to maybe give it a rewatch.

Second Season tries too hard to be a Miami Vice prequal, but there still are some good eps.

...and even some of the Vice-y stuff works. There's one ep that's just about the Mob guys pushing in on a cartel that none of the feds appear in.

so i did start watching this again. lots of incredible Chicago locations, filmed during an era (mid-eighties) when the city was still a little grimy and you could just stick in a few vintage automobiles and there you were, 1963.

the acting really holds up for the most part -- Dennis Farina is great in the lead role, especially in the moments where he has to be intimidating. Anthony Denison is a fantastic cold-hearted gangster, and often pretty deadpan funny too in his dealings w/his often-incompetent underlings. Ted Levine is probably the real standout here; I totally remembered his oddball crazy thief character from when I first saw this show as an 11 yr old, i mean you can't forget his presence or his voice or his particular slouch.

David Caruso had a big role in the pilot, Jon Polito is the crime boss Denison works for, Darlanne Fluegel plays Farina's wife, and there are a lot of good Chicago character actors sprinkled throughout.

the second episode has a pretty hilarious crazy killer character who is absolutely all wrong, though; he's a punk rock style dude (dresses like Sid Vicious) and thinks his mom lives inside his TV. he belongs in Strange Days or Johnny Mnemonic idk.

I watched twenty minutes of the pilot and was interrupted. I remember Greil Marcus was a fan.

my intro to "Runaway" too.

i really liked this when it was on TV. not sure I'd rewatch it now, though I would rewatch Homicide if it were running somewhere.

That second ep was a misstep, yup.

Going through the show, there are a number of moments where you can tell they caved to network notes about having stuff that 80s audiences could easily relate to.

Like, near the end of the first season, after they get to Vegas, they throw the brakes on all the arcs and do a story about child molestation (with a soon to be very famous performer as the victim) that just reeks of needing to do an "issue episode".

there's a real verisimilitude in the scenes w/Farina and John Santucci; IRL when Farina was a police officer he arrested Santucci, who was a jewel thief (whose technical skill at thievery inspired Michael Mann's film Thief and also some of the break-ins in this series). Santucci makes for a perfect, slimy criminal.

Michael Rooker has a "blink and you miss him" cameo as a street cop in the first scene of the pilot.

MannVerse in Full Effect: Santucci was a technical advisor and played Caan's detective nemesis in Thief, which also featured Farina as a mob body guard.

first scene with Andrew "Not Yet Dice" Clay in the series and he lights his cigarette just like he does onstage in his standup. And he's actually very good in the show. Michael Madsen makes good use of his minor role, he's does the full Madsen with the performance.