A dramatic dead end of heavy-handed storytelling, AMC‘s 61st Street loads its deck so obviously that its best intentions and first-rate cast barely stand a chance.
Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance (American Crime Story) is, as always, excellent as an underdog public defender Franklin Roberts, who’s taking on one Last Big Case. And should you think it’s mere coincidence that he keeps struggling for breath and appears to be nursing a private pain all the time, welcome to the melodramatic style of series creator Peter Moffat, whose devices here are only slightly less ludicrous than in his Showtime series Your Honor (one of the biggest wastes in Bryan Cranston‘s brilliant career).
(Credit: James Washington/AMC)
Vance is matched at every step by King Richard Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis as his politically ambitious and decidedly outspoken wife Martha, whose run for public office in Chicago on a defund-the-police platform makes them both targets as they run up against a corrupt and vengeful Chicago P.D., embodied by a menacing Holt McCallany (so good in Netflix‘s Mindhunter) as the duplicitous Lt. Brannigan. (And we haven’t even mentioned the Roberts’ autistic son, who you can bet will get lost on the subway system at the worst possible moment.)
Ambiguity is a rare commodity on 61st Street, which kicks into gear when Black track star Moses Johnson (a very good Tosin Cole), who’s just about to head to college, finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as he runs away from an ill-fated drug sting in his vicinity. During the pursuit, a police officer (who was secretly recording evidence of his department’s malfeasance) meets an untimely and accidental end, and Moses is immediately demonized as the fall guy, heading to prison while awaiting trial.
As each plot twist is telegraphed, what comes next you could probably write yourself, maybe better. It’s hardly a secret that the justice system is deeply flawed. But so, sadly, is the deafening downbeat of 61st Street.
61st Street, Series Premiere, Sunday, April 10, 10/9c, AMC (also streaming on AMC+ and ALLBLK)