Here is BBC America's short summary of the show (and a trailer):
Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an Irish-American former boxer turned cop, returns from the Civil War to find his wife missing and his daughter dead. Corcoran seeks justice for the powerless in the notorious immigrant neighborhood of Five Points. Bonded by battle to two Civil War compatriots – the wayward son of a wealthy industrialist and an African-American physician who secretly assists the forensic investigations – Corcoran is thrust into the contrasting worlds of elegant and corrupt Fifth Avenue, and the emerging African-American community in Northern Manhattan. The three men share a secret from the battlefield that inextricably links their lives forever.
From what I hear, Mr. Corcoran returns from his part in the war to learn that his wife has been abducted and his young daughter is in the grave. Yes, a bleak start to the show that reminds me of the sad story preceding the appearance of another Civil War veteran in Hell on Wheels. I expect the two stories will differ from that point forward, but I will not bet any copper on it just yet.
The early reviews are mixed, of course. The Wall Street Journal likes the setting, stating,
Odd though it may seem, the war's distance from the action at hand enhances the drama. Not much about the home front during the Civil War has ever made it to any screen, certainly not any full one set in New York City. There is one now, and it is, for all its violence and crude class stereotyping, a considerable achievement.
And yet, USAToday is not too impressed,
It boasts one of the season's most intriguing ideas: an "Eastern" about an Irish-American homicide detective in 1864 New York. And it's the first original series from one of cable's best destinations, BBC America. And yet everything about the show feels just a bit off: underfunded, insufficiently cast and flatly written.
I guess I am just going to have to watch it to make up my own mind, and I suggest you do the same.
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