Boomtown

Thanks to the miracle of DVD's, I've been working my way through the series Boomtown, which ran on NBC a few years ago. I vaguely remember the show getting good reviews from critics, but for some reason it just never caught on with viewers. And in the case of Boomtown that's unfortunate, because there's just not a whole lot of quality broadcast TV out there.

But Lugosi, you didn't get a chance to watch any of it this weekend, did you? We thought you'd be busy listening to Casey Kasem, or however the hell his name is spelled.

Well, yes and yes. It's true that I've been listening to Casey's 70's countdowns in my left ear and his 80's countdowns in my right ear. But thanks to closed captioning, I've also been able to squeeze in some quality TV time.

You don't have a life, do you?

No, not really. But that's what enables me to carry on imaginary conversations like this.

You're starting to scare us.

Oh, right, sorry.

Anyway, on its surface Boomtown is a cop show. But what sets it apart--aside from solid writing and likeable characters--is its unique approach to the stories. Instead of taking a linear approach with a beginning, a middle, and an end, the show usually opens with something would normally occur late in the plot of most other TV shows. Then the rest of the narrative is spent filling in the gaps that led up to that particular point in the story. But again, those earlier scenes are not necessarily in order.
Then there's what really sets Boomtown apart: Those earlier scenes are told from the perspectives of various characters, be it the beat cops, or the detectives, or the victims, or the perpetrators, or the witnesses. And by the time its over, everything makes sense.

It may sound confusing, but it's really not. Hell, I'm able to follow the stories, even when I'm busy listening to two different radio shows.