Show Me a Hero

It's like a procedural drama, about the drama of procedure--it isn't ever dry. There are some superbly mounted, loud, crowded big scenes--Simon is a great orchestrator of chaos --but there is an intensity to the quieter, more private moments as well. I wouldn't trade it for a bushel barrel of tortured detectives or all the kings and queens in Westeros.

It isn’t always easy to watch, but it’s always compelling, and almost unfairly stocked with stellar performances.

It’s quietly brilliant, as we have come to expect from Simon.

While it might seem that Show Me A Hero ... has a distinct "eat your vegetables" aroma to it, what becomes apparent when you settle down to watch is the unmistakable lure of being hooked by the storytelling and the first-class acting.

We are brought into the story when the housing case has already been battled over for years, by dozens of political and legal players who are introduced to us in rapid-fire succession. But if you stick with the show, the confusion clears, not with the help of expository chunks of dialogue, but through a lifelike repetition of names, issues, and stakes.

These rather didactic scenes [of meetings] contrast with more relatable ones that detail the lives of Yonkers’ disenfranchised minority citizens, whom you know will clash with their white counterparts. Isaac receives excellent support from a large cast.

The potential emotional satisfaction of this melodrama, which is insultingly pat to begin with, is hampered by the seemingly endless scenes of council meetings that Simon characteristically loves, which are contextually diluted by the stock dialogue and cartoon acting that surrounds them.