Kelsey Grammer shakes off his mild-mannered character
Surprising because it is produced by the terribly named Starz cable channel, which was previously known primarily for the cartoonishly exploitative series Spartacus. And yet, despite this somewhat dubious pedigree, Boss is good. Really good.
It’s not for everyone — some viewers will no doubt be turned off by its violence and its unremittingly bleak world view. But for those who are excited by the artistic possibilities of television, Boss is a powerful example of how good the medium can get.
Boss is a political drama in which Kelsey Grammer portrays Tom Kane, a fictional mayor of Chicago. Ruthless and implacable, Kane is essentially the villain protagonist of the series. He has a coterie of advisers and underlings, an estranged daughter and a sexless marriage with his Lady Macbeth-like wife (Connie Nielsen). He also has a secret he is concealing from everyone: he’s dying. He has a degenerative brain disease that is slowly killing him. Even worse, from Kane’s perspective, is that the disease will take away his ability to think and speak, thereby robbing him of the political power to which he is addicted.
I would be remiss here if I didn’t make special mention of Grammer and his breathtaking performance in the titular role. In retrospect, it seems almost a shame that his career has been defined by his two-decade turn as Frasier Crane. Watching Grammer in Boss, one gets the distinct feeling that he was born to play a villain. He rages through the series, exuding menace and authority in a way that evokes a Shakespearean tragic villain. Quite simply, this is a performance to be savoured like a fine wine.
Part of what makes Boss interesting is the simple fact that it takes place in City Hall. Most American political dramas tend to focus on presidential politics, which looks glamorous from a distance but tends to devolve into bureaucratic minutiae on closer examination. By contrast, big-city politics in the US has a personal, almost feudal quality to it. Without the constraints of a legislative counterweight, powerful mayors can rule their cities like virtual fiefdoms. This is the perfect backdrop for a series like Boss, which is fundamentally an exploration of the corrupting effects of power upon those wield it.
Emotional power
Boss is not a series for the faint-hearted. It is arguably not so much political thriller as it is the political equivalent of a horror movie. The violence is not especially graphic, but it carries an awful sort of emotional power. And the series is unflinchingly bleak, presenting the audience with not one single character that could be described as likeable or appealing. Everyone is morally compromised in some fatal way, from the mayor’s corporate backers to his lowest subordinates and even the ordinary people of the city, who tolerate their corruption and abuses. To put it mildly, this is not a flattering picture of Western democracy.
On a technical level, Boss is consistently excellent. It continually manages to impress with the sheer quality of the acting, writing and cinematography. More importantly, Boss is a thoughtful, brooding meditation on the nature of power, corruption and human mortality.
Kane is one of the more straightforwardly evil protagonists on tele-vision and yet he also inspires a strange sort of respect. He is aware of his own monstrous nature and this self-awareness somehow makes him seem more worthy than the various lightweights who challenge his hold on power. This is arguably the show’s greatest triumph: it manages to be morally wrenching and seductive at the same time.
Boss starts on December 26 at 9.30pm on M-Net Series