pensman Review of Public Morals

Public Morals (2015)

Can all the king's men put Humpty together again

[9/10 · 26 October 2015]

A cliché but a damn watchable one. Edward Burns has written a terrific miniseries and even better, has assembled a great cast including Michael Rapport, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Neal McDonough, Austin Stowell, and Brian Dennehy. On a recent cable upgrade, I was entitled to a DVR. Big nothing, I thought. But I set it to record Public Morals and when all the episodes were recorded and there was nothing on TV, my wife and I shrugged and thought why not. We binged through the episodes in two days and thought what a great invention—the DVR—and how lucky it was I set it correctly. You know the plot: the mob is making money off of vice and everyone is happy—the mob is making money, the police are getting a taste, and no one is getting hurt. But things are changing. Vince Latucci (Waas Stevens) has been letting some of the goombahs slide on their payments; Christine Muldoon (Elizabeth Masucci) wants to move out of their crime ridden neighborhood and move to Queens.; Charlie Bullman (Michael Rapport) is struggling with being a single parent and with an attraction to a prostitute; and Rusty Patton (Neal McDonough) feels his mob boss father isn't letting him in on the action and is planning, if necessary, to take the old man out (Brian Dennehey). And the murder of local boss Mr. O (Timothy Hutton), then requires vice cop Terry Muldoon (Edward Burns) to try and cope with the crumbling status quo.