Boss - More 4, Thursday

I don’t usually invest my time in US series that have already been cancelled, but the reviews of Boss were generally good when it was first transmitted, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

I like my drama melo- rather than mellow, and there was a cheerful Jacobean swagger about the first episode. It also looks terrific, with that amazing Chicago skyline as a backdrop.

Kelsey Grammer stars as Tom Cane, a ruthless Chicago mayor who has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease. As a result, events spiral out of control as Kane goes about his business menacing enemies, allies, as well as the people who just get in the way, including the unfortunate physician who had the misfortune to diagnose him. It’s all a bit bonkers, really, but in a really good way.

The characters are nicely loaded with dramatic potential: the machievellian sidekick, the political pawn, the glacial wife, the nymphomaniac assistant and the estranged daughter. And Grammer is a revelation. I love it when actors break free of career straightjackets, and he looks like he’s having a lot of fun.

The series was created by the Iranian-American secreenwriter Farhad Safinia, who wrote Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and the series was picked up a Golden Globe nomination, and a Best Actor win for Grammer, but sadly it never found any love from the US audience.

There are plans, I believe, to wrap the whole thing up with a two-hour movie, so if you’re worried about investing a few hours in something with no proper ending – and we’ve all stoicly sat through series to discover them suddenly cancelled, with plot-threads left hanging – then at least hopefully there’ll be some closure.

You can catch in on More4 on Thursday nights, just after Nashville which is - and keep this between ourselves, yeah? - another guilty secret in our house.

Boss, 11pm, Thursdays, More4