[TV Show review] Public Morals (2015)

by Adela Popescu

Public Morals caught my eye as soon as Robert Knepper was cast and I’ve been waiting for this premiere for months. It finally debuted Tuesday night.

Edward Burns really knows his stuff! He writes what he knows and loves in this cops and mobs drama. He’s been trying to make this for almost 20 years and never gave up wanting to tell his Irish-American cops and gangsters story.

The first season has 10 episodes, a stellar cast and the support of executive producer Steven Spielberg.

I was barely twenty minutes in and I already started to get all hooked on it. Public Morals takes place in the ’60s and has so many elements that I love:  the costumes, the colors, the cars, it has fun with the dialogue, and I love it how  Burns makes it personal and carefully avoids being too glamorous. It is gritty and somewhat dark. Loved all the ’60s music so much and just how the show looks.

The show takes a long, hard look at the uneasy partnership between cops and organised crime. NYPD’s Public Morals Division are tasked with ridding New York of vice, instead their actual job is more about keeping alcohol, gambling and prostitution under control.

It explores morally gray areas of ’60s New York. Working as part of the vice squad in New

York City, Terry Muldoon (Edward Burns) is the center of an elaborate network of characters, all of whom seem to be flouting the law.

As I said, it has such an impressive ensemble cast. Michael Rapaport as Charlie Bullman, Muldoon’s partner;  Elizabeth Masucci as Muldoon’s wife, Christine; Wass Stevens and Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Vince Latucci  and Lt. King, two veteran members of the Public Morals Division; Timothy Hutton as Mr. O, Muldoon’s uncle and an Irish mob boss; Austin Stowell as Sean O’Bannon, Mr. O’s son; Robert Knepper as the chief of police, Captain Johanson; Brian Wiles as Jimmy Shea, the newest member of the team, who’s arrival seems to put everyone else on edge; and Aaron Dean Eisenberg as my personal favorite, Richie Kane – Mr. O’s dangerous and may I say extremely charismatic soldier.

They are joined by Brian Dennehy and Neal McDonough, both delivering outstanding performances. Dennehy plays West Side Irish Mob boss Joe Patton and McDonough plays his violent son Rusty, who wants to move up and has no problem stepping over whoever he has to getting there and starts to cause big trouble in Hell’s Kitchen.

Public Morals proves it has a lot to offer. And it just keeps getting better and better. You can watch the first four episodes on VOD on TNT’s website.

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