‘61st Street,’ Starring Courtney B. Vance and Aunjanue Ellis, Takes Its Time Telling a Terrible, Familiar Story: TV Review
variety.comCaroline Framke Chief TV CriticThe first episode of “61st Street” lays the foundation for a story that’s become all too familiar on television and in reality alike.
Over eight episodes, AMC’s new drama (executive produced by Michael B. Jordan) depicts the before, during, and frantic after of a Chicago drug bust that ends in two deaths: Rufus (Kevin Tre’von Patterson), a Black teen with deep roots in the community, and Offer Mike Rossi (Patrick Mulvey), who had been quietly investigating his precinct for corruption before this fateful day.
While the cops call Rufus’ death an open and shut case of an officer defending himself, they pin Rossi’s on Moses Johnson (Tosin Cole), a promising track star caught in the wrong place at the wrong time while trying to get his brother Joshua (Bentley Green) home, before an accidental brush with Rossi sent the cop’s head into a protruding pipe, killing him almost instantly.
With limited time to lay groundwork for the intersecting stories to come, Peter Moffat’s pilot can be just as blunt as Rossi’s death.
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