The Village, a new NBC drama, wants viewers to care. The series premiere, which premiered after This is Us last night, introduces a group of tenants in a New York City apartment building. Each of them is dealing with great drama in their lives.
The show is named after its most prominent setting. The Village is the apartment building that houses the main characters. In the first episode, war veteran Nick (Warren Christie) moves into the building. He’s just left the service and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He has a history with Sarah (Michaela McManus), a fellow tenant that lives on the next floor. Sarah has a daughter named Katie (Grace Van Dien), a pregnant artist who hasn’t told the baby’s father.
If that’s not enough, that summary only includes a fraction of the story.
The Village also houses Ava (Moran Atias), an Iranian refugee whose immigration documents were forged. That leads to her arrest by ICE in the show’s first episode. Fortunately, her kind-hearted neighbor Ben (Jerod Haynes) takes in Ava’s young son Sami (Ethan Maher). Also, there’s a kind-hearted super named Ron (Frankie Faison), whose wife Patricia (Lorraine Toussaint) is sick. Then, there’s a young lawyer named Gabe (Daren Kagasoff), who spends much of his time with his grandfather Enzo (Dominic Chianese).
Much of these plot threads are introduced in the first episode but that’s not the whole story. There’s a lot more crammed into this drama’s first forty five minutes. Four episodes of the show were available for review and the jam-packed premiere only hints at the other dramatic storylines on the way.
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There’s barely time to breathe in this show, which juggles so many stories at the same time. Like This is Us, this new show clearly wants to craft an emotionally-resonant ensemble program. However, it’s so focused on all of the dramatic plotlines that it never pauses to focus on specific characters.
There’s a lot to unpack here but the show hustles from one plot to the next.
Nick, for instance, could prove to be a stabilizing character in the narrative. He’s a war veteran starting a new life with a prosthetic leg. That alone could’ve provided him with a solid storyline to begin. However, this show piles on the drama for him. He’s offered a new job in a local bar, he’s suffering post-traumatic stress and he’s also hiding a secret about his past from one of his fellow tenants.
That’s a lot for one person to handle.
So many of these individual storylines could’ve worked in a show that didn’t feel so manufactured and predictable. It’s easy to see here where the show’s is heading. From characters that will inevitably end up together to bad relationships that will crumble in an episode or two, the show feels inauthentic.
The trite dialogue — which superficially carries the show along — doesn’t help. “I’m not your baby. I’m having a baby,” Katie tells her mother in one particular moment of awkwardness.
Creator Mike Daniels, who previously produced Shades of Blue, Sons of Anarchy and The Vampire Diaries, seemingly wants viewers to connect with one or more of the members of this solid ensemble. The problem is that the show tries so hard to appeal to a diverse audience that it never fully succeeds in crafting a good story.
Part of the success of This is Us stemmed from the fact that the characters were well-defined early on. Those characters have inevitably changed over the years but the changes have been better established and the drama has been more methodical as it unfolds. The Village seems to lack that patience.
Certain actors— especially Lorraine Toussaint, who is superb in a supporting role — stand out in this drama but the show itself never does.
The Village airs Tuesday nights on NBC.
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