"Kingpin": Worthless or Incredibly Fucking Stupid?

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Not the movie, the NBC show.

We watched this train wreck last night and somehow managed to keep ourselves from punching in the television. The only reason we kept it on was because after the extreme pain of the first five minutes, we KNEW the cousin was going down and seeing the ultraviolence was an urgent and key part of excising the obnoxious shit from our brains.

This Tuesday features drug runners who appear to think that a bone necklace can stop bullets. Shouldn't someone have lost their job by now?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

(Feel free to enumerate the ways that "Kingpin" the movie is better than "Kingpin" the television show, if the mood strikes you.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

wait it CAN'T stop bullets? *rummages for receipt*

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Is the UV show about the old Spider-Man/Daredevil villain? If so, it's a shame that wrestler King Kong Bundy is dead, as he was made for the role.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

No Martin, it's about Mexican druglords. And it's BORING and STUPID.

Normally, when the best character in a show turns out to be the flesh-eating lion, that would be a GOOD sign. Sadly, not even an extended shot of the beastie gnawing on a severed shin could make up for the mind-numbing stupidity. It's like a sequential version of "Boomtown" (where "Boomtown" gets all of its narrative power from playing chronological tricks and revealing little bits of the larger, banal story, "Kingpin" lays it all out in order and expects the amber filter used on most of the shots to make up for the complete lack of dramatic tension and the unbearable characters).

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Kingpin puff piece (aka "It's sweeps month, so let's fling shit at the viewers and see what sticks")

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

It has unscrupulous plastic surgeon, how can it fail?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

That's what I kept saying! But it did fail, and failed horrifically.

There wasn't even a great "OH MY GOD WHY DID THEY SHOW THAT???" moment like on the season opener of ER when Romano had his accident. It was like a PG-13 version of "Traffic".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:26 (twenty-two years ago)

hang on, there's a flesh-eating lion?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

(as opposed to the more usual veggie lion)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Humang flesh.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 21:47 (twenty-two years ago)

In all fairness, Tuesday's show looks better.

― Christopher (Christopher), Monday, 3 February 2003 22:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was a tiger? Wow, yeah, I watched, but it was pretty .. um.. shrill and unnecessary. It did remind me of Traffic, and that film wasn't very good. Thanks to Soderburgh, all of Mexico must now be shot through an amber filter.

― daria g, Monday, 3 February 2003 23:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I just knew this show would be stupid, how dare they name it after one of the greatest films of all time?

― Nicole (Nicole), Monday, 3 February 2003 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant to say tiger. I really thought I'd said tiger.

God, I wanted the cousin to get decapitated within three seconds of his first on-screen appearance (although he did have that hilarious "tie her to a tree so I can scourge her back with a bullwhip" moment).

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 February 2003 23:10 (twenty-two years ago)

he certainly did a great job of running British intelligence in the second world war. Did they ever reveal his real name?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 3 February 2003 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

So, any opinions changed after the second episode? I'll probably keep watching for now. Why do they subtitle some Spanish parts but not others? This pisses me off.

― Christopher (Christopher), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"We don't have a cow..."

― Kris (aqueduct), Thursday, 6 February 2003 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

The movie has Woody Harrelson and Vanessa Angel so I'm not sure how any show could compete.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 6 February 2003 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

nineteen years pass...

Saw the movie ages ago, rewatched it tonight. The four principals are excellent, ditto some of the music. I think my favourite joke was Randy Quaid saying "Where'd I ever get Munson from?"

― clemenza, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 04:49 (three years ago)

Also, I bowl now, and I thought it might help my game. Didn't work.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 04:51 (three years ago)

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