Tim Goodman: Review: 'Brotherhood'

Jason Clarke as Tommy Caffee and Annabeth Gish as Eileen Caffee (Episode 1) - Photo: Claire Folger/Showtime - Photo ID: brotherhood_201_0302 Jason Clarke as Tommy Caffee and Annabeth Gish as Eileen Caffee (Episode 1) - Photo: Claire Folger/Showtime - Photo ID: brotherhood_201_0302 Photo: Claire Folger/�Showtime Photo: Claire Folger/�Showtime Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Tim Goodman: Review: 'Brotherhood' 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Brotherhood: Drama. 10 p.m. Sundays on Showtime.

Is this the year that "Sopranos" fans find "Brotherhood" on Showtime?

If ever there was a time, it's now. As those tough pay-cable decisions - HBO or Showtime - start popping up, and the channels themselves pitch a fierce battle of who has the best series left, it's damned hard to count out Showtime.

Look at that roster: "Dexter," "Weeds," "Brotherhood," "Californication," "The Tudors," "This American Life," etc. This complicates the whole waxing/waning argument between the two channels.

And as unfair to "Brotherhood" as "The Sopranos" comparison is - no series needs to have the weight of legendary expectations on it - there's also some merit to it. "Brotherhood" is about organized crime in Providence, R.I., with the Irish replacing the Italians. It's about politics, power and the deep bonds of family. It's about socioeconomic change and the wider world at large.

What's not to like? Besides, the Peabody Award-winning "Brotherhood" is in the upper echelon of all dramas on television, a visceral, gut-wrenching and cinematic marvel. Creator and writer Blake Masters has quietly forged a unique vision of small-town thuggery and the big American dream. Joined by acclaimed writer Henry Bromell and wonderful directors, "Brotherhood" has a visual palette that looks like art and a throbbing, of-the-earth cast of characters that populate that landscape. Not enough gets said about this striking combination that makes "Brotherhood" and Rhode Island such a thoroughly realized setting for the kind of stories the series tells.

Though it's hard to say any pay-cable series is "the best show you're not watching" - given the financial hardship such a choice can bring to many households - it's still the best show you're not watching. There's no way around it.

The good news is that Showtime has a free-preview this weekend (for more information, check out www.sho.com), there are sneak peeks on the site and a "Brotherhood 101" refresher there as well (same for "Dexter").

The series' main focus is on two disparate brothers from Providence. Tommy Caffee (Jason Clarke) is a politician with a bright future as he learns the knockabout rules of Rhode Island leadership. Though morality is always in flux on "Brotherhood," Tommy is the closest to a center there is, with one foot in corruption and a soul that wants a better life for his blue-collar constituents.

But his brother Michael (Jason Isaacs) returned this past season after seven years away. He's a thug enforcer in the Irish mob up on "the Hill," and his return to Providence deeply complicates Tommy's political career.

The wonderful Fionnula Flanagan plays Rose Caffee, the matriarch with loving loyalty to both boys and a hard-working, tough-love approach to family. Though she tries to lightly influence each, there are other elements at play. Namely, Tommy's wife, Eileen (Annabeth Gish), whose unhappiness as the good political wife led her astray in Season 1, with a devastating affair, drug use and creeping depression. Still, she tries to keep the Caffee family on a schedule, in school and fed - all the outward signs of normalcy.

Season 1 ended with Tommy's marriage in disarray and the brutal beating of Michael, left in a puddle of blood. Season 2 begins with Michael in recovery, his ability to function with the brain injury a matter of debate between him and his mob employer, Freddie Cork (Kevin Chapman). As for Tommy and Eileen, there seems to be no reconciliation, just a glossing over of the past for public purposes. Finally, there is Declan Giggs (Ethan Embry), a longtime Caffee family friend and a detective, who is constantly conflicted in his relationship with both his job and his extended family. And now he shares a tortuous connection to Michael.

"Brotherhood" has a fantastically deep cast. Though Isaacs and Clarke are impossible to look away from, Embry, Flanagan and Gish are doing stellar work here - and the rest of the ensemble is likely to get their due, much like the wider "Sopranos" cast ultimately did.

All anyone has to do now is watch.