Boss: Series Premiere

You’d be forgiven for thinking differently, but it’s not just movie actors making waves on the small screen this fall.  Oscar nominated film director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk) is making the transition to television as an executive producer of the new Starz drama Boss. This is no token appointment however, with Van Sant stepping directly behind the camera to put his own unique stamp on the pilot episode.

As early as the opening titles, it’s clear that there’s an auteurist quality to this new show with the aesthetics of the opening baring all the hallmarks of the Independent Cinema movement from which Van Sant emerged in the late eighties. A director who tends to polarize audiences, Van Sant isn’t necessarily the obvious choice for a network TV pilot, but then, it would seem, Boss isn’t your typical network show. Featuring Kelsey Grammer in the lead role, Boss is the story of fictional Chicago Mayor Tom Kane, who is diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease.

As typified by Van Sant’s 2003 ‘Columbine’ ode Elephant, Van Sant has always been reluctant to pull the camera away when the view becomes uncomfortable. On the contrary, as with his films, Van Sant zooms into a series of tight, uncomfortable close ups. The result does not always make for easy viewing, but then it is indicative of the difficult subject matter and sets the show apart from a number of other drama pilots this season. Whether these stylistic tendencies continue after Van Sant has relinquished the director’s chair remains to be seen, but seeing how effective the strategy proved in the first episode, I for one hope they do.

In this post West Wing world of live televised debates and political awareness it is conceivable that yet another show about the struggles of a political figure could have been lost to the ether, but Boss has something they don’t have: the oft discussed ‘Unreliable Narrator’. Although that might sound like a negative, it is in fact a huge weapon in the war against predictability and with Kelsey Grammer as the titular boss, there’s clearly nothing predictable here.

Though his affliction is fore grounded early on as part of the narrative, the Doctor delivering the bad news goes to great lengths to point out that the Mayor’s medication may result in delusions and hallucinations. It’s a simple yet intriguing device that may well have been the selling point of Farhad Safinia’s pitch. It might seem like a small detail, but what it means is that we can have no idea what to expect from the show as it goes on.

In an excellently crafted rooftop scene, Mayor Kane outlines the historic geography of Chicago and the wards, which formed its peripheries. Slowly the modern skyscrapers dissolve away, leaving only the more antiquated red brick architecture. From this moment on, it’s clear that we’re viewing the world as Kane sees it, a tantalizing prospect if ever there was one in light of the earlier suggestion of hallucinations.

In terms of character, the anti-hero has become somewhat of a television staple in recent years. The likes of Don Draper (John Hamm – Mad Men), Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini – The Sopranos) and Dexter (Michael C. Hall – Dexter) are likeable, despite their sociopathic tendencies, and it would seem that Kane is cut from the same cloth: check out the ‘severed ears in the waste disposal’ scene for further evidence. Despite my initial reservations about the casting, Grammer appears to be perfectly cast as the authoritarian, grizzled Mayor of Chicago, and I’m excited to see how he lets loose when the medications kick in. Of course, this isn’t a one-man show, and like it’s politicized predecessors, Boss will only as good as the supporting cast. Jeff Hephner and Martin Donovan are sturdy support, whilst Kathleen Robertson is almost unrecognizable as Kane’s power-suited personal aide Kitty.

All in all, Boss gets off to a steady start. It might not have been a ratings grabbing pilot, but it has substantially more potential than most other pilots this season. Assuming that the involvement of both Grammer and Van Sant ensures the show a full season, this could prove to be one of the most intriguing shows on the box.