Falcone

Falcone is as well cast as it’s well made.

It's grittily atmospheric, sharply scripted and acted with a depth that becomes more apparent as the series goes on. It will leave you on the edge of your seat. [4 Apr 2000]

Falcone is not instantly involving - it takes a little while to sort out who's who - but gets better with each episode.

This gangster saga works best when its hero is in peril. The whackings and the miserably boring lives of thugs - who appear to do nothing but hang around a dumpy pool room bar when they aren't killing each other - are old stuff by now. The double life with the Pistone family adds a different diversion, and there are occasional attempts at humor. [4 Apr 2000]

The show is good but not great. It feels redundant because it is - two times over, if you count the movie. There's no denying that's a huge drawback, no matter how brooding Gedrick and Welliver get. And, from a pure entertainment stand point, it's less satisfying to see Falcone's wife and family implode than it is to see what's happening with Tony Soprano's home life. Sorry, but it's true.

Worth watching. ... The domestic drama isn't quite so compelling as the cops-and-robbers stuff but takes some of the edge off of its intensity. [4 Apr 2000]

"Falcone" essentially is "Donnie Brasco" lite--tightly plotted and mostly absorbing, but watered down in terms of acting and storytelling (not to mention dialogue). Still, it's sharper than most of the typical network fare. [4 Apr 2000]

On its own, this series ... might not have seemed so bad. But it can't hold a note compared with "The Sopranos." [4 Apr 2000]

Writing is woefully inconsistent. [4 Apr 2000]

Although it's suspenseful, and Gedrick performs ably in the role that Johnny Depp played on the big screen, this latest series about an FBI agent's perilous double life isn't even in the same galaxy as "The Sopranos."

This is a perfectly fine premise for a series, but the painfully average Falcone lacks drive, energy and sharp characters.

So, the dialogue is cliche, the characters are cliche, the situations are cliche. What is there to recommend about this show? In the end, it's the twists that had me popping episodes into the VCR until I'd watched the first six. There's just enough of a thread -- whether it's clues that endanger Falcone's undercover operation or threats to his family -- to keep you wondering what will happen next.

It's a fun ride at first. The series is tightly plotted, and the twists create moments of satisfying intrigue ... But juicy plot turns alone cannot fuel a series for long, especially when they repeat themselves, and the limitations of "Falcone" become clearer in its second and third episodes. [4 Apr 2000]

If you've never seen "The Sopranos" -- and haven't seen "Goodfellas," "Donnie Brasco" or some of the other morally ambiguous mob tales -- you may well consider it exciting television. Well acted and occasionally trusting the audience not to need everything spelled out for it, it could fairly be called a pretty good watch. [3 Apr 2000]

A better-than-average mob saga that plays out as an epic of family longings, murder and corruption. ... Falcone is no Sopranos, but it's a so-so alternative. [1 Apr 2000]

The first two thirds of this series acts as the opposite of the Godfather line that Steven Van Zandt’s character is always quoting in The Sopranos: Every time I thought I was pulled in, the show kept pushing me out.

I just sat through most of the nine episodes of Falcone. And I’m here to report that I would rather be the victim of a mob-related hit than watch/read/endure one more Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco, aka Falcone)-related saga.

The series rarely soars beyond the predictable. [4 Apr 2000]

Nobody cusses, nobody copulates, nobody sweats, and hardly anybody bleeds. The only dramatic tension surrounds the question of whether Joe's true identity will be discovered. But in that case, he'd be whacked, and the show would be over.

The show is so far removed from the standard set by "The Sopranos." It just doesn't get off the ground. [4 Apr 2000]

When the programming strategy is more compelling than the drama itself, that's a bad sign. [4 Apr 2000]

I waited for delicious strands of dialogue to memorize - it's a favorite pastime among "Sopranos" addicts - but none was forthcoming from "Falcone." [3 Apr 2000]

Why does it seem so much worse than it is?

The only way it will strike anyone who has seen HBO's "The Sopranos" as extraordinary is in how extraordinarily tame it is.

Rather than try to enumerate what's wrong with this loopy loser and use up inches of valuable newspaper space, one is tempted just to say "everything" and leave it at that. Of course, that isn't too specific. But watching Falcone saps one's spirits to such an extent that it's hard even to get mad at it.

Plagued by pedestrian scripts and mostly nondescript characters, it slogs from night to night without nearly enough suspense or consequences. [2 Apr 2000]