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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 3626
Released: September 4, 2007 |
| Our Price: $4.84 |
| Used Price: $4.40 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From the Oscar-winning writers of Crash and the writer of Million Dollar Baby comes a bold and edgy crime-drama seriesThe Black Donnellys. Four very different Irish-American brothers - Kevin Jimmy Tommy and Sean - have sworn to live by the code of "family first." But as they become increasingly involved in the ruthless world of New Yorkorganized crime their loyalties to their friends to their loved ones and especially to each other will be put to the ultimate test. Available on DVD for the first time this explosive 3-disc set includes all 13 episodes including seven episodes that never aired on NBC.System Requirements:Running Time: 171 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 025195011136 Manufacturer No: 61101328
The Black Donnellys - The Complete Series Reviews:
Brilliant! 
2009-09-14 - This show is a gem, and it is outright crime that it was canceled, especially considering all the garbage that's on tv (i.e. - reality shows and the same old Law & Order and CSI offspring). This show should've been on HBO, Showtime or other similar movie/pay-per-view channel. Someone should pick this up again - I don't care who. Hell, it could even be a direct-to-dvd movie, but this story needs to be finished!
I'd recommend this to anyone who liked 'The Sopranos' or 'The Boondock Saints'.
Why do the good television shows come to an end so soon
2009-09-11 -
This tv series had a lot of twist and turns.I was sorry that the show ended so soon in what I thought was it's prime.
The Black Donnellys- 4 Stars 
2009-09-08 - This DVD arrived pretty quickly, a few days later than some others that I have ordered, but still pretty fast. Also it was in very good condition as promised. Overall, I am very pleased with my transaction.
networks only kill the great ones!
2009-08-22 - Six or seven characters, all with an interesting story. The plot is a fascinating, tragic, train-wreck that you just can't look away.
Trying too hard 
2009-07-19 - Had I stopped watching this DVD after the first episode, I would have given it five stars. Unfortunately, I watched the entire 13 episode run at once and it just runs out of steam by the third episode and never gets it back.
Part of the problem is that we've seen this all before. The novelty of a narrator who keeps changing his story is original. The rest of it is just gangster cliche. The ambiguous morality of the gangster genre usually plays out well, but this is network television and they didn't want a main character who was doing truly despicable things. Instead he's a nice guy who sometimes has to kill people who completely deserve it. Sure, one of the brothers is a heroin addict, but the addiction comes and goes when the plot requires it.
Other problems include the fact that it was written to be an ongoing series that looked like a series with a definite end point. When the narrator is being interrogated by cops about "the bodies" you know that eventually the writers are going to have to cough up the bodies. Now a show like The Wire: The Complete Series has the luxury of telling a story with a beginning, middle and end. However, in television most of the storylines have to go like Hasbro Spider-Man & Friends Sing-a-Long Spider-Man where everything comes back to a shaky status quo. Sure, some network shows like Lost: The Complete Fourth Season or How I Met Your Mother: Season Four can pull it off, but only barely.
Those shows work because they have engaging characters and a storyline that keeps moving along. The Black Donnellys is stuck in a series of nothing happening. Tommy gets in trouble. Tommy stays in trouble. Tommy gets out of trouble. Jimmy gets in trouble. Tommy and Jenny get involved. They get uninvolved. They make eyes at each other. They are meant to be together but they can never get together.
Blah. Blah blah.
I'm happy I didn't buy this thing, but truthfully, I regret borrowing it from my library. The first episode is still amazing, but it never quite lives up to that potential and once the series gets into a groove, it stays there and never lets up.
