{"id":3484,"date":"2026-07-12T04:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3484"},"modified":"2026-07-12T04:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T04:39:40","slug":"the-westies-review-j-k-simmons-and-titus-welliver-lead-mgms-handsome-but-generic-gangster-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3484","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Westies\u2019 Review: J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver Lead MGM+\u2019s Handsome but Generic Gangster Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tOn a textual level, MGM+\u2019s The Westies<\/em> is all about people who refuse to abide by the rules. Within the Irish and Italian criminal organizations of 1980s New York, low-level gangsters threaten rivals they\u2019ve been explicitly instructed to leave alone. Mid-level ones deal drugs under the noses of bosses who\u2019ve forbidden them. The best-laid plans are derailed by impulsive outbursts of anger or fear.<\/p>\n

Read more Patti LuPone\u2019s Gay Cruise Ship Blocked (Again) From Entering Egypt<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tOn a metatextual level, however, the entire season is an eight-hour exercise in coloring within the lines, without so much as a bit of snazzy shading to offer the illusion of depth. Despite a pair of decent lead turns from J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver, the best that can be said of the latest gang drama from Chris Brancato and Michael Panes (Godfather of Harlem<\/em>) is that it\u2019s too competent to be unbearable, even if it\u2019s also too unimaginative to be interesting.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Westies\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\nThe Bottom Line<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

\tToo slick to hate, too dull to love.
\n\t<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nAirdate:<\/strong> Sunday, July 12 (MGM+)
Cast:<\/strong> J.K. Simmons, Tom Brittney, Titus Welliver, Sarah Bolger, Stanley Morgan, Hamish Allan-Headley, Allen Leech, Jessica Frances Dukes, Vincent Walsh, Hilary McCormack
Creators:<\/strong> Chris Brancato, Michael Panes\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe Alan Taylor-directed premiere begins at a moment of relative peace for the Irish American Westies (a real outfit that operated out of midcentury Manhattan, not that you need to know that to follow the series) and the Italian American Gambino crime family (also real, and more famous). After years of mutual violence, bosses Eamon Sweeney (Simmons) and Paul Castellano (Ron Lea) have called a truce, not out of any particular goodwill but out of a businessman\u2019s understanding that both factions stand to make a ton of money off construction on the Javits Center in Hell\u2019s Kitchen, if only they can stop getting in each other\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir followers, though, are less than thrilled with the d\u00e9tente, and less than conscientious about following its rules. The brutal efforts required to keep the men in line come at the cost of sowing discontent within the ranks \u2014 including in their increasingly disillusioned prot\u00e9g\u00e9s, Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney) and John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headly). Meanwhile, the feds have started circling, led by FBI agent Birdie Polk (Jessica Frances Dukes) with the reluctant help of dirty NYPD officer Glenn Keenan (Welliver).<\/p>\n

\n\tWith so much plot to get through, Brancato and Panes deserve credit for keeping the tone smooth and the pace even. The narrative beats move deliberately enough that a casual viewer won\u2019t get lost in the weeds, but briskly enough that an attentive one will always have some new wrinkle to look forward to. The mood is resolutely straight-faced but not self-indulgent \u2014 this is not the kind of show that pretends to have big smart things to say about the false promise of the American Dream or the corrosive effects of revenge, but one that just thinks it\u2019s neat when glowering tough guys point guns at each other.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of it is set against a version of New York that appears admirably lived-in, from grimy streets to cramped apartments to bars that look run-down even before various thugs take guns and bats to them. As with the rest of the show, it\u2019s nothing we haven\u2019t seen in countless other gritty period dramas, but it speaks to the care and effort of production designer Rocco Mateo. If all you\u2019re searching for is a generic crime drama to look pretty on your flatscreen while you cook dinner or answer emails, you could do worse than The Westies<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut you could probably do better, too. The Westies<\/em>\u2019 most glaring issue is its characters, or really the lack thereof: Nearly everyone onscreen comes off like a well-worn clich\u00e9 rather than an individual with any distinctive personality or inner life.<\/p>\n

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\n\tOur hero, Jimmy, always does the right thing not because there\u2019s any comprehensible reason he seems so much smarter and kinder than everyone else in his orbit, but because \u201cgood\u201d and \u201csmart\u201d is just what heroes are. (\u201cHero\u201d being a relative term in a milieu where everyone has at least a few murders under their belt.) He has a perfectly loving connection with his girlfriend, Bridget (a likable Sarah Bolger), not because there appears to be anything specific about their connection, but because that\u2019s just what heroes deserve.<\/p>\n

\n\tBridget has her own subplot involving a secret history with the IRA, which is maybe the one element of The Westies<\/em> that doesn\u2019t feel straight out of a \u201chow to write a gangster drama\u201d checklist. But it\u2019s so disconnected from the rest of the plot that I don\u2019t know why I even brought it up in the first place, or more to the point, why the writers did.<\/p>\n

\n\tJimmy\u2019s best friend is Mickey (Stanley Morgan), who\u2019s practically a parody of the \u201chotheaded low-level gangster\u201d stereotype. His contribution is being predictably unpredictable, by which I mean his ability to control himself waxes and wanes with the show\u2019s need to throw a wrench into Jimmy\u2019s careful plans or inject some tension into a high-stakes negotiation. Their other friends are interchangeably forgettable, and exist mainly to fill up screen space or get killed off.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir most hated enemy is John Gotti, and if he feels familiar it\u2019s less because Gotti, the actual historical figure, is so well-known and more because The Westies<\/em>\u2019 version of him is a sanded-down copy of every Italian mobster you\u2019ve seen in every movie. You know that scene where a powerful gangster pretends to be extremely offended by something a less powerful guy has said, just to make him sweat a bit before bursting into raucous laughter? That\u2019s how we\u2019re introduced to him, because of course it is.<\/p>\n

\n\tA few of the cast members do manage to suggest an interiority beyond what\u2019s dictated in the scripts, and it won\u2019t surprise you who they are. Sweeney might not be one of Simmons\u2019 more interesting roles, but the actor brings enough snark or weariness to his line readings to make the character feel alive. And Welliver carries Keenan with a heaviness that hints at some profound private pain, though the precise cause of that sorrow becomes less interesting the more we learn about it.<\/p>\n

\n\tOr perhaps it\u2019s not that his backstory is insufficiently sad as much as the fact that, by the time we get the full scope of it, The Westies<\/em> has given us so little reason to get invested in it \u2014 or anything else. There will be no complex emotions to process here, no grander themes to parse, not even any memorable quirks or zingy one-liners to remember. The best gangster dramas, from the works of Coppola to Scorsese to David Chase, offer vivid style, compelling characters and ambitious ideas in addition to the usual bag of body parts and revenge plots. The Westies<\/em> settles for retracing the familiar tropes they\u2019re built on.<\/p>\n

Read more Christopher Nolan Addresses \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 Backlash, Explains Why Film Uses Modern Dialogue<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J.K. Simmons stars in MGM+'s 'The Westies,' about the violent conflicts within and between the Irish and Italian gangs in 1980s New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2505,2443],"class_list":["post-3484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-j-k-simmons","tag-titus-welliver"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The Westies\u2019 Review: J.K. 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