movieman_kev Network TV trying to compete with HBO or even basic cable like FX. Miguel is the new family 'kingpin' after the previous one dies and the next in line, his son, is killed. He must run the illegal business while trying to keep his 8 year-old son out of it. The FBI are looking to shut his operations down. Meanwhile Brian Benben as a plastic surgeon entangled with the 'family' acts to much like Martin Tupper. Dranny Trejo in a bit part is one of the highlights. Anyone expecting this series that lasted 6 episodes to be a mini-series will be sadly disappointed by the lack of a real ending. And after 6 hours (with commercials, less if you are watching the DVD set) one can't help but feel somewhat ripped off. Especially when it takes a few episodes to really get going. It's not that Kingpin is necessarily bad, just that it's not really all the memorable. The Producer's cut on DVD is peppered with some nudity and cussing.My Grade: C-

julian kennedy Score 5/10 As seen on NBC and inexplicably spread over three DVDs, The six hour mini-epic Kingpin is now available to all those who blinked and missed it. Visually stunning with great sets and production values Kingpin certainly looks great. The story is another matter. Scarface minus the Godfather plus American Family then mix thoroughly with network standards and practices and you really have a mess. The story cries for more sex and violence. The acting is a mixed bag with Yancey Arias giving a great performance as the head guy. Sheryl Lee chewing scenery as his shrewish Anglo wife and most embarrassingly Brian Benben hopelessly miscast as an indebted mule/plastic surgeon. Yep it is Nip/Tuck meets The Shield without the grittiness of either series as well as a lot of unsubtitled Spanish to wade through. After you watch the first twenty minutes you will say to yourself hey this is really cool. Do yourself a favor and turn off the TV. It is the only way to preserve the feeling.

LohseParas I agree with one of the other reviewers here - I actually REALLY enjoyed the whole show a lot and thought that Yancey Arias was terrific in his role - I think we will see a lot more from this young man!But the last episode left me very unsatisfied. If this was SUPPOSED to be a 6 part mini series then the ending was one of the worst I have ever seen - if it's supposed to become a series - well then OK.I also read yesterday that NBC "cancelled" Kingpin which obviously suggests that it was supposed to go on. I can't imagine why they would have canccelled it since I didn't meet a single person that I know who didn't think that this was an awesome show.

mhoney-1 Although I'd like to some day, I have never seen "The Sopranos" and therefore cannot compare the two. Not having even regular cable or satelite has certainly limited what I can see on TV, which is not necessarily bad, either."Kingpin" struck me as something of a cross between "Traffic" and "The Godfather," with Miguel Cadena as the Michael Corleone character (soft-spoken, college-educated, etc.). The show certainly was a risky endeavor for NBC, as it focused mainly on characters with no apologies for what they do. And while this was no masterpiec of television entertainment, it was certainly, in my own opinion much more intriguing than Reality TV, and even some of the police dramas that are so popular on the Big Three (NBS, ABC, CBS).As the title character, I sometimes thought that Miguel was perhaps too weak, not that Yancy Arias was not good in the role, but even Michael Corleone, in his calmness, killed two men, one of them a cop. The editing seemed to usually convey the story well. While his character was not terribly important, Brian Benben's Dr. Klein offered some much-needed comic relief to an otherwise grim miniseries.Marlene was certainly very tough and sexy, and Chato made the series interesting as Miguels older brother, who, sometimes quite surprisingly and inventively, took care of eliminating unwanteds.As the series came to a close, however, I became less interested in the Cadena family, although both the scene where Chato killed the policemen who raped him, and the scene where their uncle strangled the senator with a garote were both very exciting. I became more and more interested in the DEA's part in the series, after Delia Flores got mixed up in the investigation into "Truck" Thompson and his narcotics officer cousin, Rolando Porter.Unless there was enough of an audience to suggest this become a regular series, I think that in the end there seemed, somehow, to be a lack of closure for the characters.