MAGIC CITY: MIAMI AND THE MOB

Once more cable TV sets out to make a series that hopes to deliver high class drama with low class subject matter. It's something they've come to do well for the most part but not always as effectively as they'd like. This time around the series revolves around the Miami hotel circuit near the end of the fifties and into the sixties, displaying the desire of Hollywood execs to try and capitalize off the success of other shows once more. Once MAD MEN took off and became a hit, suddenly everyone wanted to revisit the early 60s. The network series about Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Empire floundered shortly after it aired and PAN AM didn't even make it through the first season. So how does MAGIC CITY stand?

The story revolves around Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a man who struggled from the bottom to get to the top. The owner and main driving force behind the Miramar Hotel on the famous beach does whatever he can to make his business succeed. Unfortunately that includes becoming involved with the mob in the form of boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston).

The time is ripe for mob influence as well with Castro coming into power in Cuba and their hotels/casinos there being lost. They not only want to be involved in the hotels in Miami, they want to take ownership of them from behind the scenes. It's the only way they can with the FBI looking over their shoulder.

Ike sees the potential that the hotels in Miami have. He sees it as more than a simple place to rest yourself on the road to somewhere. This is a resort town in the making with the potential of casinos and high class entertainment much like Vegas which was developing at the same time. But he has problems that he thinks only these mob connections can solve, the first of which is a potential union strike by the hotel employees. With Frank Sinatra set to open on his stage, he can't afford to have them picketing out front. The mob solution of course ends in someone being killed and the body dumped. This plays into several episodes down the line and links Ike into the dealings behind the scenes as well as in front.

The story also involves Ike's sons, one of whom unknowingly begins a rather heated affair with Ben's wife and the other going to college to become involved with law enforcement. Either one has the potential of collapsing the dreams of Ike.

The show does capture the feel and the look of the times. It offers a glittery surface that most people who went their saw without the darker roots at its core. It's those darker roots that develop most of the drama in the show and that keep it interesting.

The acting is well played by all involved. Morgan has become a driving force in the roles he plays. I first saw him in the series SUPERNATURAL and wondered why he wasn't used more. Since then he's had several starring roles and with his turn here as Ike shows that he deserves more. Huston plays the slimy mob boss to perfection. Ruled more by temperamental fits than by sly cunning, Huston's Ben is to be feared first and foremost. He can be outmaneuvered but only if you don't forget that behind that temper is a cunning sense of evil that just might discover more than you want.

While the show is well made and thought out it didn't feel to me that it would be one that would last several seasons and yet season two is already in the works. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. The one thing that did bother me while watching was the reliance on nudity that all cable shows seem to feel the need to resort to. It's as if they feel the only way to let people know that the show is a cable show is to display nude women every so many minutes per episode. While the women on view are lovely isn't there a better use for them in a series than window dressing? I'm sure those who made the series would argue that women at that time in this arena were used for nothing more. For myself I've just grown tired of the same thing being dumped into cable series as nothing more than a way of saying "See? We're a cable series. We have breasts and networks don't. Watch us instead." It doesn't encourage me to watch. The story should be what matters and the focus of the show as well. The so called "window dressing" doesn't get me interested.

That being said there is potential in this show. If they can focus on the important aspects of it and move past the rest then it might be something worth watching. If it continues down this path then it is nothing more that a celebration of T&A with some story thrown in for good measure.

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