{"id":4038,"date":"2026-07-12T15:38:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4038"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:38:30","slug":"j-k-simmons-crime-drama-the-westies-is-a-flat-take-on-new-yorks-irish-mob-tv-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4038","title":{"rendered":"J.K. Simmons Crime Drama \u2018The Westies\u2019 Is a Flat Take on New York\u2019s Irish Mob: TV Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tThe construction of the glass box where Hillary Clinton would eventually concede the 2016 election may not sound like the stuff of riveting television. And sure enough, it isn\u2019t \u2014 at least in \u201cThe Westies,\u201d the MGM+ drama about how the titular Irish gang worked to profit off the building of the Javits Center on the far edge of Manhattan. Despite the presence of veteran actors like J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver as a local crime boss and the crooked cop he keeps on the payroll, \u201cThe Westies\u201d is unable to deliver a distinctive take on a well-worn genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4036\">Box Office: \u2018Moana\u2019 Flounders With $43 Million Debut, Among Weakest of Disney\u2019s Live-Action Remakes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tOscar winner Simmons stars as Eamon Sweeney, a Hell\u2019s Kitchen kingpin looking to leverage the Javits project into a gravy train for his associates, an interchangeable mob of young toughs with names like Sean and Connor. Sweeney\u2019s vision requires making nice with the Italian Mafia that far outnumbers his dwindling crew \u2014\u00a0chief among them a skeptical and ascendant John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headley), the most famous reminder that \u201cThe Westies\u201d is (loosely) based on a real-life organization. (Would that \u201cThe Westies\u201d were as transcendently awful as the 2018 biopic starring John Travolta as Gotti; instead, it\u2019s merely dull.) But that plan relies on an impulsive group of violent thugs staying in line, and on junior deputies like Sweeney\u2019s proteg\u00e9 Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney, saddled with distracting sideburns) trusting his judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tCreators Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, who previously collaborated on the network\u2019s series \u201cGodfather of Harlem,\u201d could use the 1980s setting of \u201cThe Westies\u201d to make more specific observations about the story\u2019s time and place. The Javits Center, now the site of New York Comic Con and other gatherings, represents opportunity but also displacement in the twilight years of the Irish American population as a distinct ethnic bloc with its own physical enclaves. (Assimilation was already several generations underway by the time of the Reagan Administration.) But rather than strike a melancholy tone as in \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d and Tony\u2019s famous declaration that \u201cI came in at the end,\u201d \u201cThe Westies\u201d simply feels dated in its focus on brawling Irishmen \u2014\u00a0like if the Jets of \u201cWest Side Story\u201d simply kept at it for another 20 years and moved their battleground a few blocks south. The ascendance of Colombian cocaine and other hard drugs serves as one nod to changing times, but it\u2019s a cursory one.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tNor does \u201cThe Westies\u201d have the immersive production design of recent projects like HBO\u2019s \u201cThe Deuce,\u201d which recreated porn-era Times Square in all its seamy glory. (It doesn\u2019t help that filming took place in Ontario, depriving \u201cThe Westies\u201d of authentic local texture.) Most of the topicality comes from Jimmy\u2019s girlfriend Bridget (Sarah Bolger), a fugitive IRA combatant who rejoins the struggle when her ex-comrade Brendan (Allen Leech) re-enters the picture. Yet viewers looking for a nuanced rendering of the Troubles would be far better served by watching 2024\u2019s \u201cSay Nothing\u201d than this tangential subplot.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBut \u201cThe Westies\u201d suffers most from a severe lack of compelling protagonists. Sweeney is the kind of cold-blooded pragmatist who has no problem killing one of his own for disobeying orders, as he does in the opening scene. He\u2019s certainly more convincing in his logic than Jimmy\u2019s blind loyalty to loose cannons like Mickey Flanagan (Stanley Morgan), a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran who has no business handling a gun and does so with predictably disastrous results. Yet \u201cThe Westies\u201d seems to lean more on Jimmy\u2019s side of tribal loyalty, even when that tribe consists of killers and thieves there\u2019s no real reason to prefer to those of other ethnicities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4035\">\u2018Five Years, Four Months\u2019 Review: Moving Portrait of a Grieving Colombian Mother Demonstrates an Impressive Control of Tension<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tWelliver\u2019s Glenn Keenan, for example, isn\u2019t just a corrupt cop reluctantly recruited by the FBI onto a special task force targeting the Gambino crime family. He\u2019s also an alcoholic and deadbeat dad whose redemption isn\u2019t an easy sell, even when Harry Bosch himself is doing the selling. By the umpteenth time Glenn\u2019s teenage son Danny (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong) begs him to just go away and stop belatedly trying to make things right, you can\u2019t help nodding in agreement. The same goes for the entire ensemble: \u201cThe Westies\u201d makes the audience indifferent at best to whether Sweeney\u2019s group can successfully pocket millions through fraud and corruption, and actively antagonistic at worst. Meanwhile, the upbeat music that accompanies sporadic action sequences \u2014 mostly punching, though one involves an extremely goofy use of a rocket launcher \u2014 seems to suggest they\u2019re meant to be endearing, or at least enjoyable.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSimmons\u2019 booming voice and crinkly-eyed charm remain intact, even stuffed beneath a semi-period-appropriate newsboy cap. (Sweeney <em>is <\/em>a member of the old guard, after all; it\u2019s not like he\u2019d be wearing Armani suits.) But \u201cThe Westies\u201d isn\u2019t a particularly compelling translation of his appeal into the idiom of prestige TV, \u00e1 la the short-lived sci-fi series \u201cCounterpart,\u201d or a savvy positioning of Simmons as an amoral older mentor to a young and hungry mentee, \u00e1 la his Oscar-winning role in \u201cWhiplash.\u201d It\u2019s just a crime show about an uninteresting group of criminals whose dying lifestyle there\u2019s no reason to mourn.<\/p>\n<p>\n<em>The first two episodes of \u201cThe Westies\u201d will premiere on MGM+ on July 12 at 9 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Sundays.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4033\">Tech Investor Vinod Khosla to Acquire the NFL\u2019s Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 Billion<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\tJ.K. Simmons Crime Drama \u2018The Westies\u2019 Is a Flat Take on New York\u2019s Irish Mob: TV Review<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<strong>Production:<\/strong><br \/>\nMGM+\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Crew:<\/strong><br \/>\nCreated by Chris Brancato and Michael Panes\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Cast:<\/strong><br \/>\nJ.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney, Sarah Bolger \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MGM+ crime drama &#8216;The Westies&#8217; stars J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver in a flat tale of New York&#8217;s Irish mob and the building of the Javits Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3290,3291],"class_list":["post-4038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv","tag-j-k-simmons","tag-the-westies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>J.K. 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