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Irish wannabe gangsters make a comeback in NBC’s Midseason replacement show “The Black Donnellys”, which despite the name, is not about a family of African-Americans named the Donnellys. The Donnelly boys are four close-knit 20-somethings who grows up on the mean streets of New York’s Hells Kitchen, and there they remain, and probably die, too.

The hour pilot is told through the eyes of an incarcerated snitch name Joey Ice Cream, who is talking to some cops (or feds) about “where the bodies are buried”. Joey Ice Cream weaves a tall tale about the Donnellys, and by pilot’s end, he has chronicled their inadvertent rise to the top heap of the Hells Kitchen Irish mob scene. Rather what he’s saying is true or not remains to be seen. The guy likes to change his stories, it appears.

Of the brothers, there is Tommy, the most responsible and toughest of the bunch. Tommy, an aspiring artist with a real gift, spends most of his time getting his brothers out of jams not of his making. Most notably Jimmy, who walks with a limp from being run over by a car when he was a boy. There’s the charming youngest brother Sean, who probably spends too much time getting into girls pants to really get into trouble of his own. Middle brother Kevin, who mostly just goes along with Jimmy’s kooky plans, such as hijacking a van carrying shirts, only to have the shirts stolen out of the hijacked van while it’s parked.

The only outsider let into the brothers’ tight-knit family is Jenny, who grew up to marry a man who quickly disappears, leaving poor Jenny a widow, although she doesn’t know it. The Donnelly boys know what happened to her husband, but won’t tell her in order to spare her feelings. Jenny and Tommy share feelings for one another, but have never said them out loud.

It isn’t long before one of Jimmy’s schemes, this time to kidnap and hold for ransom a bookie that Kevin owes money to gets the brothers into really deep water. The bookie happens to be the nephew of a major Italian mob figure, and they want him back. After one of the brothers ends up in the hospital, and a second is marked for death, Tommy has to decide rather to leave it alone, and lose potentially both brothers, or take action. As you might have expected, he takes action in a brutal, bloody showdown.

“The Black Donnellys” is pretty heady stuff, and definitely isn’t for the weak of heart. The pilot is co-written by Paul Haggis, who has written or touched up just about every movie in the last few years that has won something at the awards shows. Haggis also directs the pilot, and intricately weaves the film’s many elements into an oftentimes funny, but ultimately nihilistic look at the lives of the Donnellys. This is very much in the vein of “The Godfather”, with Tommy forced to act to save his family, choosing the dark path because, simply, it is his destiny to do so, and all protestations to the contrary have been biding time for this moment. Their father’s death, at the hands of Italian mobsters, would seem to have sealed their fates long ago.

NBC plans on replacing the well-regarded “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” with “The Black Donnellys”, which I think is not a bad idea. “Studio 60″ is one of those shows made for the critics, who eagerly proclaimed it the greatest show since the last show made by the same guy. Unfortunately for the critics, Mainstream America could give a shit what they think, so it’s bye-bye “Studio 60″ and hello “Donnellys”.

I really don’t see “The Black Donnellys” lasting beyond its first year, if it gets that far. The show, while excellently written, acted, and directed, is simply too hardcore for the average viewer. This is on par with watching “Goodfellas” or “The Godfather” every week. If you like that kind of stuff, sure you’ll probably be able to watch “The Black Donnellys”. But I doubt if the rest of America will be able to stomach all the violence and nihilism.

Too bad, because Olivia Wilde, who plays Jenny, is insanely hot, and this is a really, really, REALLY good show. But as we know by now, being good doesn’t mean anything anymore in today’s primetime schedule.