Amazon.co.uk Review
Pitched as a gritty, hard-hitting crime drama series about a mob family,
Kingpin invites inevitable comparisons with
The Sopranos--the pilot episode is even directed by
Sopranos alumnus Allen Coulter--but the basic premise is more a south-of-the-border
Godfather, with Miguel Cadena (Yancey Arias) as the conflicted Michael Corleone-type character who finds himself inexorably but somewhat reluctantly taking charge of his family's Mexican drug cartel. Written and produced by David Mills, a graduate of
NYPD Blue and
Homicide: Life on the Street, the show has all the right credentials for a successful TV drama, combining a colourful ensemble cast and evocative locations on either side of the Rio Grande, but somehow it failed to find enough of an audience in the US to get beyond one season (a similar fate befell the equally praiseworthy
Boomtown).
Unlike Tony Soprano, Miguel's (American) wife Marlene (Sheryl Lee, still best known as Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks) supports her husband's position with Machiavellian schemes of her own, though both parents strive to shelter their eight-year-old son from involvement in the messier side of the family business. After a bloody coup in the pilot episode, Miguel and his ruthless brother Chato (Bobby Cannavale) cement their hold over the business while struggling with the twin threats of family infighting and law enforcement pressure. As in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, the DEA agents--principally go-getting Delia Flores (Angela Alvarado Rosa)--are significant characters in their own right. Also north of the border is cowardly plastic surgeon Dr Heywood Klein (Brian Benben), who enjoys the lifestyle too much to break his illicit connection with the Cadena family. It's all gripping, bloody, amoral stuff that makes for compelling viewing. Unfortunately, Kingpin never quite attains the effortlessly sublime levels of its northern predecessor and thus never quite breaks free from the long shadow of The Sopranos. --Mark Walker
DVD Description
From the two-time Emmy Award-winning executive producer David Mills (E.R., NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street) comes Kingpin, a powerful, stylish and graphic description of a Mexican drug trafficking family fighting to rule an empire in the face of the U.S. Drug Enforcement administration and the lethal underworld in which they reside. Directed by Allen Coulter (The Sopranos).
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