William in K-ville: Bad Boy in the Big Easy

SPOILER WARNING for K-ville -- read no further if you don't want to know!


This past spring William scored a guest spot in the pilot episode ofFox's New Orleans-based police drama K-ville, which is coming to TV screens on September 17 -- or, as I was delighted to discover a couple of weeks ago, is available online for advance viewing now. This is BRILLIANT of Fox, in my opinion. K-ville has been getting a big push from Fox in their advertising, and it's clear that they hope to hook a big advance audience against NBC's smash Heroes. Now not only are they appealing to viewers weary of summer programming by giving them a taste of the fresh fall schedule--they're giving William fans (who haven't seen him in anything new since April) some instant gratification. We'll take it, thank you. :)

"Gordon Wix" is a former soldier turned mercenary, now working as the head of security for a casino in Katrina-ravaged and semi-lawless New Orleans. He's cool, smart, poker-faced, and uniquely suited to the new realities of the city (something he rather matter-of-factly points out to the show's unraveling hero in one of the show's "telling character development" moments). New Orleans is portrayed in the series a bit like the wild west: seemingly self-contained from the rest of the world, trying to pull itself back into the 21st century by it's bootstraps and fighting against those trying to erode civilization by maintaining the more profitable chaos. I think William might've seen Wix as our generation's Al Swearengen, come to think of it: dangerous, murderous, but only because that's the cost of doing business. "C'est la vie, it benefits me to kill you now. Don't take it personally."

Fans of Action William -- I can picture him striking a pose as I call him this, heehee! -- will not be disappointed, as the episode makes up for his limited number of scenes (only 3) with a big chase scene at the climax of the episode. William looks great, buff and broad-shouldered, hair blowing in the wind, running around and wrestling hostages into cars and shooting automatic weapons and jumping into getaway helicopters. It's even broad daylight, so for once in a network television drama you can tell what the hell is going on. That's the big payoff for William fans in this one, and frankly the reason why I suspect most of us (William's fans) will tune in.

Unfortunately, the part was not written for a long-term stay, and William's character was not the mastermind behind the Big Crime of the Week but merely the hired heavy used by the mastermind. This is where I have to say that the producers of K-ville totally dropped the ball (and no, that's not just because of my bias for the actor). They utterly wasted what could have been a great character by having the bad guys apprehended and shipped neatly off to the pokey in the end. YAWN. Wix & Company, as the shady element profiting from the city's chaos, could have gone long-term as the season's Big Bad. Wix was smart enough to have kept the show's heroes hopping as they tried to bring him down, serving as the connecting plot thread through each weekly crime adventure, bringing intrigue throughout the assorted action to an ultimate satisfying conclusion. The pilot episode could have served one helping of a bigger pie (leaving the audience craving the next piece the following week), but settled instead for being a single-serving formulaic weekly cop drama. They went for a quick wrap-up on the police action portion of the show, and seem to be relying on the theme of "we must not forget Katrina; we failed the city once, we must rebuild New Orleans now" as the predominant theme of the show.

I'm not saying there isn't value to delivering that message; certainly there is, but I don't believe that that sentiment alone can carry a show. People tune in to be entertained. It's shallow, but it's true. They'll take a public service message and a kick to the conscience as part of the deal, but if you plan on reminding them how badly we collectively dropped the ball (and are still failing people who are struggling to regain their footing), you'd better give them a spoonful of entertaining sugar with the medicine. Think I'm wrong? We'll find out in week 2 when K-ville goes up against Heroes.

I had been warned many months ago that this was going to be another of William's less savory characters, so I knew long before going into the episode not to hold out hope that this would be that big romantic comedy break we've all been waiting for. Watching the episode I knew who the masked gunman would turn out to be; I would have guessed anyway, because let's be honest, William seems to be one of those actors whose preferred handgun size and ski mask measurements are on file with his other costume specifications at central casting, right? (That is endlessly frustrating, by the way. Have you ever tried to get screen captures from an episode where your actor almost never takes off his mask? It ain't easy, I can tell you...but I digress.) Nevertheless, when faced with another "niche" role we must focus on what makes this character different. I'll go with "killer, but not crazy; Ethan without the mystery, or maybe Gunneson without the alien possession." In the end I think it still boils down to one great action scene. William looked great, gave an enjoyable performance, and clearly had fun with the role. As long as he keeps delivering on that, we'll all be there.