Looking for quality TV on Tuesday nights? For the immediate future, FX has boxing fans covered with their unapologetic, new boxing drama Lights Out. Last night’s (January 11) series premiere will undoubtedly have many boxing fans primed to follow the comeback exploits of fictional former heavyweight champion Patrick “Lights” Leary (Holt McCallany).
The show opens with bloodied and disfigured Leary laid out on a table, still clad in his ring gear. He’s so still that you initially don’t know if he’s alive or dead. His wife Theresa (Catherine McCormack) comes into view, her face a mixture of fear, anger and sadness as she admonishes Leary’s brother and trainer, Johnny (Pablo Schrieber), to let them have privacy. Once he awakens, mumbling words of regret on the fight (“I was robbed…I got a hard head”), she gives him a ultamatum, “Either you stop, or we stop.”
Fast forward five years, and there is no peace or stability on any level of Leary’s life. Intimacy with his wife is compromised by her career aspirations, and balancing a family of three children. Financially he’s near ruin, the result of several bad business deals. He’s forced to do demeaning work as a bingo dinner host. We also find out that he’s professionally haunted by his last fight, which was a highly disputed split decision title loss. By following the advice of his corner (“Just box, don’t get too close.”), he’d let his opponent off the hook in the 12th.
Adding to his woes was a medical diagnosis of pugilistic dementia, which verified the bouts of memory loss he’d been experiencing. With no money or prospects to feed his family, he relents to strong-arm work for a local organized crime figure. His secret work is already tragic, in light of the ironic twist it puts on any of his attempts to impart wisdom on his children.
“People who tell lies do it to hide themselves,” Leary tells his daughter right before lying about his hand injury, the result of viciously beating a man( who admittedly deserved it) in a street fight.
Lights Out has started off very strong. All the storylines appear set, and will play off each other. If you missed the premiere, it’s well worth it to check your local listings for an encore. And make sure you don’t miss episode two next Tuesday (January 18) at 10 PM EST.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 