By Brandon Nolta

Well, it only took three weeks, but finally a new episode of K-VILLE made it to the airwaves. Starts off hot, too; Cobb (Cole Hauser) and Boulet (Anthony Anderson) answer a call to respond to a robbery, and they show up just in time for it to be a murder. The partners split up to pursue the suspects, and Cobb chases down one of the guys with Glue Boy (Blake Shields) backing him up, only to get a big shock when the suspect recognizes him from his felon days. Cobb hesitates, and the suspect gets away and hands a beat-down to Glue Boy. Glue gives the suspect a fatal shooting, but Glue Boy gets a trip to the ICU, and Cobb feels a buttload of guilt, a burden that Love Tap (Tawny Cypress) is more than happy to hand him.

Knowing that his old gang is still running around, Cobb decides to infiltrate his old gang and take them out, with a little backup from Boulet, on the theory that if they don’t get taken off the streets, eventually they’ll cross paths and cause trouble. Cobb makes contact, while Boulet sees his wife greeting a man with excessive affection. This doesn’t make either of them happy. Meanwhile, Cobb’s getting back into the life, but there’s at least one gang member who isn’t welcoming.

Unfortunately for Cobb and Boulet, the old crew is led by a guy much smarter than the usual crook, and it wouldn’t be a crime drama if someone’s ass didn’t end up in a sling at some point. Of course, Cobb can’t help but throw yet another complication into the mix; his old flame Wanda (Brigid Brannagh) is the gang leader’s present flame, and things between Cobb and Wanda haven’t cooled down much over the last few years. Meanwhile, Boulet takes a big risk in sneaking some C-4 out of police lockup to help Cobb take part in an operation they can use to take down the gang. This can’t go wrong in any way, right?


Things come to a head, as they usually do in lives as exciting as they are in K-VILLE: Wanda sees Cobb meeting with Boulet, and quickly figures out Boulet’s on the blue side of the line. When the gang turns on Cobb, it turns out that the murder victim they rolled up on was scamming a fund for returning New Orleans residents, and the explosives were to bust a safe with a million bucks inside. Naturally, everything comes down to an armed confrontation with fire and explosions and bullets, oh my. By episode’s end, most everybody that could rat out Cobb save one is dead, but that one is the smartest, most dangerous fellow, and if K-VILLE is given its head, you know he’ll be back around.

Once again, there are a lot of good pieces to this show, but it all comes back to Hauser and Anderson, working that partnership magic. One of the bad guys tells Cobb he’s working the Zen Buddhist thing, and that’s a pretty accurate description of how Hauser plays his character. Of course, that’s probably the best way to get space against Anderson, who plays Boulet at 50,000 volts all the time. The guy probably sleeps angry, but he’s a great role for Anderson, who throws everything he’s got into the portrayal. Sure, there are plenty of other good actors working the K-VILLE beat, but Anderson and Hauser are the main event every week. As long as Fox keeps K-VILLE going, this reviewer will be tuning in weekly to watch Boulet and Cobb keep N’Awlins safe.