Giancarlo Esposito is in The Driver's Seat in Parish

 

 

Last week I wrote a long article in which I praised the great Giancarlo Esposito’s work in television. I focused primarily on his work on Homicide because it had been undervalued but if you’ve been watching television for the last fifteen years – or even the last five – you don’t need to know what a force he is.

He brought Gustavo Fring to life on Breaking Bad and then after his character had the most memorable death scene perhaps of all time, brought him back in Better Call Saul to show the layers we had only seen hints at in Bad. He seemed even more of a villain at times but there were also layers to his humanity that we occasionally got glimpsed of – particular in what would be his final scene on the show. In between Esposito has entered both the world of Star Wars and superheroes with memorable stints in The Mandalorian and The Boys. But in all his years of being one of the greatest character actors of all time, he has never been cast in the lead in his own series. Until last night.

For the third time in his career Esposito has reunited with AMC. For more than eight years he has been working on a passion project based on a British TV series The Driver. No doubt his incredibly busy schedule has taken so long for it to finally come to fruition. But now it has arrived with Esposito playing the title role in Parish. Among its other virtues, after having to spend the last five years of Saul trying to pretend he was six years younger when he was actually six years older, Esposito finally gets to play someone his own age – and closer to being the good guy than he has in a while.

Gracian ‘Gray’ Parish when we first meet him (the series starts in media res but I’m going to start at the actual beginning) is a married man in New Orleans. We see him sparring with a heavy bag early in the series and has a troubled relationship with his daughter Makayla (Arica Himmel). His limo company is struggling in an era of ride shares and Uber. It’s not looking like either the loans of his business or the mortgage for his house is going to go through. His wife Rose (Paula Malcomson, in a role not that far removed from Abby Donovan) is a social worker, trying to get her husband to move on. We already know that Gray lost his son and it’s clear from Makayla’s attitude that he was the favorite child in the family. None of them know the truth about Gray’s past and we get a hint of it when Colin shows up in the back seat of his car.

Colin is played by Skeet Ulrich, in a role similar but infinitely more interesting then the one he ever got to play on Riverdale. Decades ago he and Colin worked in the criminal underworld, and for reasons undisclosed Colin ended up in prison. He has just gotten out after 17 years and he says that he needs Gray’s help to pick up a ‘package’ with a payout waiting at the end of it. Gray knows better but he ends up having a meeting with the men who are from Zimbabwe.

After just an episode we’ve already gotten a picture of the crime family, which is run by an actual family. The Horse (Zachary Momoh) is the man in charge, who has a clear bond with Grey from the moment they meet. Zenzo (Ivan Mbakop) dresses flashily and chafes at the fact that he should be running the operation. Shamiso (Bonnie Mbuli) is clearly the peacemaker but in the first few scenes with her it’s clear she thinks she could do a better job running the business than either of her brothers – and her father knows this.

Gray agrees to do one job that he thinks will work smoothly. We see from the inside it doesn’t and we also see how calm Gray is under pressure as well as when it comes to thinking on his feet. He manages to get through the job but at the end of the episode the family is not happy and in a scene that mirrors perhaps the most famous one Esposito did in Breaking Bad (“Well, get back to work” should be enough to tell you what I mean) a man dies in front of him and he has to maintain the cool façade even with blood on him.

I know that some will look at the set-up and see Gray as a parallel to Walter White, even though it’s clear Grey is the mirror image of him: a bad man who has spent the last twenty years trying to break good. He’s also clearly a better husband and is trying to be a better father. In a scene that I can’t imagine Bryan Cranston doing, he gives Makayla a driving lesson with a mix of the anxiousness and affection all parents have to. Of course, it ends with him being called into action. Gray is driven by the same initial desperation to provide for his family as Walter White has but he is infinitely calmer – and more determined to make sure the truth about his actions never come out.

Some have already drawn a parallel to this with a follow-up series that Bryan Cranston did recently Your Honor which was set and filmed in New Orleans and also involves a morally upright man corrupting himself against the wiles of a crime family. It’s a reasonable comparison but not entirely fair either. Gray is infinitely more qualified to handle things than Cranston’s judge was in that series and always prepared for an exit strategy if plan B didn’t work. Cranston’s character naively thought he could control the consequences in Your Honor. Gray Parrish knows better.

Now having seen how the series opens you know that Parish is going to unfold quickly. We open with a scene that shows Gray being pursued by the police and the action of the series begins exactly seven days previous. Whether what we see in the opening happens at the exact end of the six episodes or closer to the middle remains to be seen. But unlike some of the other bigger budget series that have aired over the past few months – I’m speaking of Night Country and The Regime – were after one episode I wanted to jump ship, the end of Parish actually made me thirst for more. I think most of it has to due with the fact that Parish is infinitely less pretentious that either of those two shows. It’s not trying to be about something bigger than it is or has sumptuous dressings. I find that refreshing.

It also helps matters that Parish has a standout cast. Esposito has never steered me wrong in TV for the last quarter of a century and he doesn’t do so here. I care about Gray more than any of the characters in Night Country or The Regime and I can feel a genuine affection for both his family and even the screw up Colin. Malcolmson and Ulrich are old hands at this. And I’m waiting with bated breath for the arrival of an industrialist who is played by that masterful talent Bradley Whitford. Whitford has been a part of the landscape nearly as long as Esposito has and has nearly as good a track record when it comes to TV. Even absent his stint on The Handmaid’s Tale (never seen it, never will) I know just how gifted a performer he is. It’s looking from the description that his character might be the Gustavo Fring of this series and I’d love to see him play against type for once.

Parish is listed as only being a one-season drama, but in today’s world that means nothing if the shows a success. I hope it will be not just because I worship Esposito but also because it’s the kind of prestige show AMC needs. With the exception of Dark Winds, the network that was a part of prestige drama has now essentially become a network for the supernatural, from every conceivable Walking Dead spin-off to at least two different Anne Rice based series. Bob Odenkirk’s Lucky Hank was the kind of show AMC needed but the network quietly killed it. Perhaps Gus Fring can manage a three-peat where Saul Goodman failed.

My Score: 4 stars.