Monday, July 09, 2007
The Bronx is Burning Episode 1 Review
The first episode is the 8-episode series begins with the 1977 game against the Boston Red Sox in which Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata) appears to not hustle for a pop fly ball to right field Billy Martin (John Turturro) is obviously displeased with his performance and benches Jackson only to have a fight nearly break out. George Steinbrenner (Oliver Platt) is watching the incident on TV and demands Martin to be fired.
Cut back to 1975.
A friendly phone call chat between Steinbrenner and Martin brings Martin to his first managerial position with the Yankees, leads them to the 1976 pennant only to be swept by the Cincinnati Reds and Martin is ejected from the game for throwing something on the field.
Martin is later seen in the clubhouse weeping after the loss and his ejection when Steinbrenner comes in to throw more fuel on the fire.
This is where we see the vintage Steinbrenner owners talked about.
Into the beginning parts of the show we see Martin and his wife having an argument about their personal life that later plays the ultimate ending of Martin.
Steinbrenner in typical superstar-needy fashion signs Reggie Jackson for three million dollars, and quickly we see his ego and his wanting for more money.
During the 1977 spring training, we see how the other players interact with each other both on and of the field and the emergence of the leadership of Thurman Munson and the continued growth of Jackson's ego.
The ego plays a big role in the first season as a magazine columnist is tasked to interview Jackson and one of the main viewpoints is his ego, and as much as he denies the fact his ego is not as large as he thinks, every act disproves it.
What he does, and especially what he says, referring him in third person "Reggie Jackson puts people in the seats" and "I'll have New York eating out of the palm of my hands" and some of the quotes Jackson states.
The other main conflict in this series are the altercations between Steinbrenner and Martin with the first one being an argument over Martin not riding on the team bus during spring training and eventually leads to his way of managing versus the way Steinbrenner wants him to manage. Eventually, Martin is fired and replaced by Yogi Berra.
Next week we see Jackson's quotes being taken out of context in the interview, Steinbrenner pressing for a World Title, and the players begin to resent Jackson.
Episode 2 - ESPN
10pm EST
Tuesday, July 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Labels: history, review, The Bronx is Burning, TV, Yankees
Posted by Steve Kenul at 10:18 PM
Daily D posted at 1:33 PM
another review on the bronx is burning
www.notthegame.com
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