Hightown

Here’s the tightly wound, smartly layered, compulsively watchable crime drama about an alcoholic, lesbian marine fisheries agent that you’ve all been waiting for. Monica Raymund (“Chicago Fire”) gives a compellingly frenetic performance as Jackie Quiñones.

“Hightown” loses some of its momentum in later episodes — the story bogs down a bit and the pieties about addiction and taking control of your life move more into the foreground. But it never entirely loses its flavor. It’s good enough that if it were a little better — a little quirkier, a little more urgent — there’d be nothing to complain about, and that’s pretty good.

With every episode, Estimond adds new fascinating layers to his character, shedding light on the code he honors which separates him from animalistic henchmen such as Kizzle (white-haired Edmund Donovan, camping it up). He also sports a surprising sense of humor, earning laughs when you least expect them. ... Thankfully, when the show needs to be deadly serious, it is to often riveting effect, grounding its yarn of corruption in the tragedy and lack of closure that its subject matter demands.

Grisly thriller Hightown lays on the raunch and violence so thickly, you might mistake it for classic soft-core Cinemax. And yet there's a grim, propulsive urgency to the exploits of Jackie Quinones. [11 - 24 May 2020, p.7]

There’s nothing glaringly wrong with it, just as there’s nothing so intriguing about it that you want to watch it week-to-week or even binge it once Starz has aired all the episodes.

“Hightown” is an uneven mash-up of incongruous themes, a veritable grab bag of provocations that may have felt edgy 20 years ago. That may have been forgivable if the plot was halfway intriguing, but the twists are about as surprising as a drag queen in P-town.

While the series puts great effort into exposing other sides of the community, it doesn’t, elsewhere, transcend fairly simple character types, dragging us instead into recursive storytelling that’s outshone by the local color.

The LGBTQ thing is played out too weakly here. The main actress is interesting but cannot wear the series alone. The male lead is supposed to be a corrupt and sneaky cop. But that's pretty weak from the actor. The story itself is gray mediocrity and the dialogues are often stupid. CAN INCLUDE SPOILER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The series should probably provoke by the LGBTQ theme but is still quite pale around the nose. After episode 2 I don't know why this series is given a second season. The story is terribly tough and the characters don't get any depth. Now I'm in episode 4 and it doesn't get any better. The episodes become tough and the plot does not advance. now the main actress is also annoying with her quirks. In addition, it almost degenerates into porn. So episode 4 through and the main character is just annoying. Instead of investigating the case, they drink, draw and torture coke. Totally by the old woman. And then she runs around again.

Garbage. Hot, pandering garbage. None of the characters are likeable and the story is stupid. Feels like its written about CHAZ or some kind of drug and sex-fueled, LGBTQ purgatory. Sense8 without an interesting arc.