If you thought David Kelly lost his touch or Courtroom was his only forte, think again. Boston Public, his latest venture has no courtrooms & has nothing feel good about it. It is a high school drama and has events in Winslow high school as its subject matter.
This hard hitting, power packed drama is neither about good teacher bad students nor about teacher with a stick not even fluffy teenage romance. Its about the real problems the school teachers, administrators and students face in the school. There are no heroes, no villians and happy endings are rare. The show grips you with its hard-boiled presentation. The pace of the drama barely gives you time to even look at your remote. There is so much happening but none of it looks far fetched. Though some cases can be said as US specific but the basic theme is universal, and as most of us have got our initial education in school so you easily relate to characters.
The characters at Winslow High School are deftly crafted. Leading the pack is Chi Mcbride (Gone in 60 seconds & Red dragon) as the Principal who has to do the balancing act between being tough and understanding at the same time. His deputy played by ’Anthony Heald’ is the strict disciplinarian who fires teachers & suspends students without giving a second thought. In short he carries on the principal’s dirty work. The chemistry between these two characters is one of the best part of this series. Both are loners with no family or friend to talk to, so they usually try to fill this void for each other.
Among the teachers Nicky Katt stands out as a teacher who doesn’t mind breaking a rule or two if he thinks he can help his students. Be it running a ’Suicide club’ or arranging a fist fight in class or taking his students to the morgue etc. He’s always on the wrong side of the administration. The other one is 80 year old ’Harvey Lippschitz’(the name has stuck so much that I cannot remember his original name). He plays a little mental teacher who doesn’t hesitates on calling his students names or bad mouthing his collegues. He’s in the school only coz there is extreme shortage of teachers. In the second season ’Jeri Ryan’ has also joined as a lawyer who’s got tired of her proffession and so takes on teaching.
Every episode of BP deals with issues like drugs, student stress, teacher’s favoratism, plagiarism, students with guns or with the gangs, students abuse, Grading disparities etc. The best part is never a single character is highlighted, every episode has two-three incidents involving different teachers and students. It holds your interest coz the subject matter is fresh with a fresh treatment. So it is not predictable. There is nothing feel good about this series. Just like all David Kelly’s serials it is well written with brilliant chatactarisations. Now in its second season this one is not worth missing. All in all even if you have nothing to do with school or you are ignorant of US public school system, it still manages to give you an hour of gripping entertainment. So next time do switch to star World on Monday’s 10 pm and enjoy.