New Orleans Crime Show
"K-Ville" May Magnify Big Easy Situation in Katrina's Aftermath
K-Ville's focus on New Orleans post-Katrina crime is apt to cause more image problems for the Big Easy as it moves into the third year of its recovery from the flooding.
Promotions for the Fox television show K-Ville said that "in the aftermath of Katrina, with the future of New Orleans hanging in the balance, the stakes could not be higher in K-Ville."
Actually, the stakes are high for both the show itself and for the impact that it will have on New Orleans in the third year after the hurricane. It’s a gamble for Fox and another worry for the city
K-Ville (Katrina ville?) focuses on New Orleans police fighting crime in the aftermath of the greatest natural disaster in United States history..
The folks who predict such things are not sure the series will last into 2008. The producers, of course, are betting it will be one of the surprise hits of the season.
Interest in K-Ville will depend somewhat on how the weekly episodes, which must be produced weeks in advance of the actual showings, match the crime headlines flowing from New Orleans on almost a daily basis.
Differs From Other Crime Shows
This is a greater-than-normal issue for two reasons: First, other cities featured in crime shows are usually not in the kind of national spotlight that the Big Easy is in now. Second, crime situations in other cities are normally not as time-sensitive as they are in post-Katrina New Orleans.
New Orleanians have ample reason to worry about either the success or failure of the show. The stakes are high for the city because when the show opened, the Big Easy was still struggling to recover from the storm:
- The flooding which followed Katrina had caused New Orleans much more damage than originally thought, not only to homes and neighborhoods, but also to businesses and the city’s infrastructure.
- It still needed much more federal assistance, having actually received much less than it had been promised, and less than most of the nation believed it had received.
- It still needed to rebuild its convention and tourist business and still needed to lure back some of the thousands of residents who had still not returned to the city, holding its population to two-thirds of its pre-Katrina level.
- It still needed to control an unexplained post-Katrina crime wave that surprised and shocked most of the city and robbed it of energies and resources it needed to devote to the recovery.
- It was struggling with a national image problem that had developed as the nation became weary of Katrina.
Bad Publicity for City?
Mayor Ray Nagin caused another uproar in August 2007 when he said New Orleans murder headlines were a two-edged sword. The murders generated concern, he said, but they also kept the nation’s attention focused on the city. Critics screamed that it was not the kind of attention the city needed.
However, it is exactly the kind of publicity that K-Ville is likely to give the city. Focusing the nation’s attention on its crime situation is not apt to bring many residents back and less likely to attract new investments or more visitors.
Advance clips from the early episodes weren’t very pretty. One showing an exploding automobile could bring comparisons to the situation in Bagdad.
Characters Are A Motley Crew
The lead police characters in the series, according to advance publicity notices, were not likely to win much love for the city. They included:
- Marlin Boulet, who "isn't too worried about bending a few rules" to break criminals;
- His partner, Trevor Cobb, who is looking for redemption from a mysterious past;
- "Hotheaded and impetuous Billy "K-9" Faust;
- "Wise guy" Jeff "Glue Boy" Gooden; and
- "Hardbitten" Ginger "Love Tap" LeBeau.
They’re not the kind of characters likely to cause joy in K-Ville.
