Boomtown was a critically acclaimed but ultimately short lived NBC television series created by Graham Yost. It was a Los Angeles-based crime show with a difference; rather than telling the story in a linear format, each episode pieced a case together from the points of view of those involved -- the police, the District Attorney's office, the media, the paramedics, the suspects and the witnesses.
Featured in the main cast were:
- Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Joel Stevens
- Mykelti Williamson as Detective "Fearless" Bobby Smith
- Neal McDonough as Deputy D.A. David McNorris
- Gary Basaraba as Officer Ray Hechler
- Jason Gedrick as Officer Tom Turcotte
- Nina Garbiras as reporter Andrea Little
- Lana Parrilla as paramedic Teresa Ortiz
As the season progressed, we also learned more about the private lives of these characters, such as the death of Joel's baby and his wife's depression.
The five disc Season One DVD set includes all 18 episodes from the first season, as well as audio commentaries for six episodes and two featurettes about the making of Boomtown.
Audio Commentaries
The DVD features commentaries on the following episodes:
- Pilot, with commentary from series creator Graham Yost, executive producer and director Jon Avnet, and Donnie Wahlberg.
- The Freak, with commentary from Graham Yost and Jon Avnet.
- Execution, with commentary from Graham Yost, Jon Avnet, and writer Laurence Andries.
- Storm Watch, with commentary from Jon Avnet, co-executive producer Bert Salke, writer Chris Brancato, and technical adviser Kevin Dunigan.
- Fearless, with commentary from Graham Yost, director Frederick K. Keller, and Mykelti Williamson.
- Blackout, with commentary from Graham Yost, writer Fred Golan, and Neal McDonough.
The commentaries offer insights into the writing and shooting process, including filming techniques and the conceptualisation of the episodes. Some interesting facts are revealed - such as Teresa's original back story that was cut from the pilot episode, and how McDonough actually induced vomit for a scene in Blackout.
Special Features
In addition to the audio commentaries, there are two featurettes entitled Building Boomtown and The Boomtown Shuffle.
Building Boomtown focuses on the development of the series, its characters and style. This featurette includes interviews with cast members Wahlberg, McDonough, Williamson, Garbiras, and Gedrick, as well as writers, producers, and directors who worked on the show. Yost comments that despite only 24 episodes of Boomtown being made, he was "just happy that we got a shot".
The Boomtown Shuffle discusses the challenges associated with writing and acting in a Rashomon-style nonlinear narrative series. Boomtown required the writers to forget the usual conventions of a police procedural while also breaking a story up into its smaller stories in a coherent fashion. Due to overlapping perspectives, sometimes scenes would be repeated but Yost explains that it was important for the viewer to get new information about the plot or character during those repeated scenes. Williamson says scenes were often shot over and over with slight adjustments to reflect how different characters viewed the same events. Wahlberg reveals he tried not to read other characters' scripts and in one episode, did not realise McDonough's character was lying to him until he watched it on television.
Verdict
Unfortunately for international Boomtown fans without region-free players, the Season One DVD is only available in Region 1.
At times the DVD seems rushed; for example, deleted scenes are mentioned during the audio commentaries but are not on the DVD. Also, given there were only six episodes in Season Two, all 24 episodes should have been included in the DVD package. To date, the second season has not been released outside France.
But overall, Boomtown, Season One is a good addition to the DVD collection of any fan, as well as a great package for anyone discovering the series retrospectively.
