{"id":4637,"date":"2026-07-13T01:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:37:07","slug":"stream-it-or-skip-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=4637","title":{"rendered":"Stream It Or Skip It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>J.K. Simmons is an Oscar winner for a reason; he could read from a DoorDash menu and make it compelling to watch.<\/em> <em>In his new <a data-aps-asc-tag=\"decider08-20\" data-aps-asin=\"\" data-wrapped-template=\"https:\/\/r.deciderlink.com?btn_ref=org-4cd6b7249030f707&amp;btn_url\" href=\"https:\/\/r.deciderlink.com?btn_ref=org-4cd6b7249030f707&amp;btn_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fvideo%2Foffers%3FbenefitId%3Depix%26tag%3Ddecider08-20%26asc_refurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fdecider.com%2F2026%2F07%2F12%2Fthe-westies-mgm-plus-review%2F%26asc_source%3Dweb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-nyp-affiliate=\"true\">MGM+<\/a> series <\/em>The Westies<em>, he plays the ruthless boss of an Irish-American crime organization in the grimy environment of Manhattan\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen in the early 1980s.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/show\/the-westies\/\">THE WESTIES<\/a><\/em>: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Opening Shot:<\/strong> In a warehouse, a young guy is holding a gun on what looks like a mafia-type figure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Gist:<\/strong>\u00a0The young guy holding the gun is Davey O\u2019Brien (Dan Reilly), a foot soldier for the Westies, an Irish organized crime group that runs things in Hell\u2019s Kitchen on the west side of Manhattan. The organization is run by Eamon Sweeney (J.K. Simmons), and has seen their power and influence overwhelmed by the Italian mob, namely the Gambino crime family. The guy being held hostage, Vincent Siccaro (Michael Rispoli), is a capo in the Gambino family.<\/p>\n<p>Sweeney and his guys, including right-hand man Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney) go into the warehouse to keep Davey from doing anything serious and spark a mob war. He and Jimmy have to remind Davey that they\u2019re now working with the Italians, not kidnapping them for tiny ransoms like they used to do. But right before letting Siccaro go, Sweeney kills Davey. He later tells Jimmy, who is incensed, that Davey was becoming a wild card and had to go.<\/p>\n<p>As much as Sweeney doesn\u2019t like kowtowing to the Italians, the stakes are high, with the Javits Center being constructed on the Westies\u2019 home turf, and he got the group a piece of the huge racketeering pie that is available to them. If they don\u2019t cooperate with the Gambinos, the Westies will be shut out of that.<\/p>\n<p>When Sweeney is summoned to meet with fast-rising Gambino underboss John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headly),  he\u2019s told that the Westies have to \u201csilence\u201d a union leader popular in the Irish community. At the same time, Jimmy\u2019s friend Mickey Flanagan (Stanley Morgan) is being released from Bellvue, and he insists he\u2019s well enough to work for Sweeney again. Jimmy\u2019s girlfriend, Bridget Walsh (Sarah Bolger), is asked by a former IRA colleague (and ex), Brendan Cahill (Allen Leech), to \u201cbabysit\u201d a rocket launcher he\u2019s smuggled into New York for a big plan he\u2019s looking to execute.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, a beat cop named Glenn Keenan (Titus Welliver), is recruited by FBI Special Agent In Charge Birdie Polk (Jessica Frances Dukes) to join their task force to bring down the Gambinos. The plan is for him to get info from the Westies, given his background. What Polk doesn\u2019t know is that Keenan grew up with Sweeney and takes payments from the Westies to look the other way; Sweeney encourages Keenan to join the task force and report back to him. But Keenan\u2019s biggest concern is that his estranged son Danny (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong) doesn\u2019t get involved with the Westies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.45661451;display:block\" width=\"859\" height=\"590\" alt=\"The Westies\" class=\"wp-image-2097321 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-2.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1284 1284w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Photo: Brooke Palmer\/MGM+<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>What Shows Will It Remind You Of?<\/strong> <em>The Westies<\/em>, created by Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, reminds us of other crime dramas about the Irish-American mob, like <em><a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/show\/brotherhood\/\">Brotherhood<\/a><\/em> or <em><a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/show\/the-black-donnellys\/\">The Black Donnellys<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our Take:<\/strong> Like the aforementioned shows about the Irish-American mob, <em>The Westies<\/em> gives viewers a fair amount of Irish tropes, like people sitting around a pub drinking Guinness, needle drops from the Dropkick Murphys, and thugs in leather jackets and newsboy caps. What <em>The Westies<\/em> has that many of those other shows didn\u2019t is J.K. Simmons and, to a lesser extent, Titus Welliver.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons is excellent here as Eamon Sweeney. Sweeney is ruthless as the Westies\u2019 leader, to the point where he has no compunction with shooting a loyal footsoldier in the head to keep him from screwing things up for them, and then show up to his funeral and actually seem regretful that he had to do it. When he\u2019s being ordered around by Gotti, you can see in Simmons\u2019 face that he hates being pushed around by the Italians, but he also is keeping his eyes on the prize, which is the huge payday associated with the Javits Center grift.<\/p>\n<p>Welliver\u2019s character, Glenn Keenan, seems to be a typical crooked veteran cop who has been on the job for decades and is counting the days to retirement while taking his kickbacks from Sweeney. But there is certainly more to his story, and the story of his and Sweeney\u2019s frenemyship, just from what we can see in the once scene that Simmons and Welliver share in the first episode. They\u2019re contemporaries who are from the same neighborhood and ran in the same circles, but one became a Westie and the other became a cop, albeit a corrupt one. <\/p>\n<p>Their story is the one we find intriguing in the early going. The mob hierarchy between the Italians and the Irish brings a somewhat novel dynamic to this 1980s organized crime story, but it\u2019s not novel enough to be interesting. Jimmy\u2019s struggles to keep his unhinged friend Mickey from getting himself and others killed and Bridget\u2019s struggle to keep her IRA past in check have the potential to be good stories, but they also feel a bit generic, despite good performances.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.46915352;display:block\" width=\"867\" height=\"590\" alt=\"The Westies\" class=\"wp-image-2097322 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-3.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1284 1284w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Photo: Brooke Palmer\/MGM+<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Performance Worth Watching: <\/strong>We mentioned Simmons and Welliver, so we\u2019ll talk about Sarah Bolger, who has a potentially meaty role as Bridget, who is going to be pulled back into her IRA past by Brendan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sex And Skin: <\/strong>Some blurry toplessness in one scene, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Parting Shot: <\/strong>After Sweeney orders Jimmy to shoot Mickey, Jimmy shoots someone else instead, and Sweeney says, \u201cDo you know the fuckin\u2019 troubles you just caused us?\u201d Jimmy\u2019s reply: \u201cWe\u2019ve always got troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sleeper Star: <\/strong>Jessica Frances Dukes plays Agent Birdie Polk as appropriately tough, weary and snarky, like when she tells Keenan that she\u2019s the Special Agent In Charge, she then follows it up with, \u201cI know, right? They even gave me a nameplate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Most Pilot-y Line: <\/strong>The way that Jimmy and Mickey \u201csilence\u201d the union leader doesn\u2019t seem to have any repercussions, given what it seemed like everyone understood Gotti\u2019s instructions to Sweeney were.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our Call:<\/strong> STREAM IT. <em>The Westies<\/em> is a servicable crime drama thanks to the performances of Simmons and Welliver and the potential for their stories to yield interesting drama. The rest of the show is OK, but nothing that will stick in our minds after we watch the series.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joel Keller (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelkeller\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">@joelkeller<\/a>) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn\u2019t kid himself: he\u2019s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, <\/em><em>RollingStone.com<\/em><em>, <\/em><em>VanityFair.com<\/em><em>, Fast Company and elsewhere.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0023\">\n\t(function(d, s, id) {\n\t\tvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n\t\tif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n\t\tjs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n\t\tjs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8\";\n\t\tfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J.K. Simmons is an Oscar winner for a reason; he could read from a DoorDash menu and make it compelling to watch. In his new MGM+ series The Westies, he plays the ruthless boss of an Irish-American crime organization in the grimy environment of Manhattan\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen in the early 1980s. THE WESTIES: STREAM IT&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/the-westies-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}