Boss - Listen, Pilot, S01E01

Considering that Boss was renewed for a second season before it even premiered, expectations for this pilot were pretty high. And certainly the quality was there. I can't complain about the storytelling, the acting, or the cinematography. I can, however, complain about the show itself.

Why should I watch a show were all the characters are manipulative jerks completley out for their own interests?

Kelsey Grammer's Tom Kane is an ass. He may be dying of some bizarre ailment which is certainly going to be problimatic while he remains Mayor, but I'm not going to like him simply because he's sick. It's his actions in life that matter - his intimidation techniques to accomplish his political goals, his violent tendancies, his astrangement from wife and daughter. This guy has no redeeming qualities, except perhaps that he is quite smart and capable, but as he is using those for all the wrong reasons, I really can't care.

And he is the lead character of the show. The rest of the cast is equally corrupt and irreverant. Just what the daughter is doing as a pastor who buys drugs, I cannot say, and nor, frankly do I care. I care no more about the wife who may be trying to help children get better education but is more concerned about appearances than results. And the one character I did like, the doctor who diagnoses Kane, well, what does she get for her trouble of being a good person and an honest doctor? She gets drugged so that she knows that people can get close to her and her son and hurt them if she screws up. I suppose in a world so full of mean spirited people, it's impossible to believe that she would have stuck to her vows without coersion, but if I were her, I'd be so much more tempted to speak out of interests of self-preservation now that I'd been threatened.

So I spent an hour watching this show, during which I really started to question my resolve to stick to watching entire episodes when I really don't care. Next time, I'm not going to waste my time.