K-Ville

As the denizens of K-Ville move among the ruins of the city, the real and the fake merge until you forget that this is mere entertainment. It's a new experience, and an invigorating one.

This first episode doesn’t offer enough payoff for those first scenes: far too much Hauser and running, and too little Boulet and talking. But the opening scenes give proof of intelligence, and the series might yet display that intelligence more effectively, and give Mr. Anderson room to play.

K-Ville plays like a tired retooling of the pre-"Homicide" cop-show formula.

So what we have here is "Miami Vice" minus the palm trees and sports cars, and plus a sliver of an earnest message.

The more K-ville captures this aura of gloom, the more depressing it is to watch.

The show squanders any high-mindedness with ridiculous shoot-'em-up scenes reminiscent of any cop show circa 1979.

A badly acted, clumsily constructed "Starsky & Hutch"/"Miami Vice" revival that imposes fictional clichés on top of harsh realities.