I miss the Boss

eight Fridays flew by and I guess I'm ready for more in 2012

12/16/2011 11:50 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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The cast iron legs in Grant Park that are now TV personalities

It all started when I wanted to see my Dearborn Park 2 neighbor Debbie Woo play the part of Kitty O'Neil's assistant--as a silent extra. She was there in a swirl in the background in the first episode. But after watching "Boss" on Starz that first night back in October, I got hooked.


The bizarre story of larger-than-life Mayor Kane, who is dying of a rare debilitating disease, his Machiavellian wife who was the daughter of the previous mayor (who is disabled and living in a Museum Park condo with women who ocassionally walk around naked), his arrested crack head daughter, trying to clean up her act by working as a pastor at a clinic, his masochistic, sex-fueled assistant Kitty, who is now pregnant after an affair that transpires in stairwells, alleys, and other places like the Hilton Lobby (yes, you are reading this right) and her glass-enclosed office in City Hall--with the politician (who has a sadist for a wife) who just beat the incumbent governor--who may be gay, and who gave a concession speech in front of the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry (couldn't tell) which had a huge US flag draped in front of it.

Not to mention Kane's other assistant who kills, mames and otherwise eliminates anyone who has the slightest ability to hurt Kane. Until Kane has him killed. And then there's all the kids who are sick because Kane allowed the dumping of toxic waste on land in Bensenville. And the disgruntled aldermen and committeemen (who are far more disgruntled than even Alderman Ed Burke is). And the list goes on.

But what really justified my watching was that I wanted to find out why the Boss camera crew was in Grant Park one night last summer filming a scene within the legs of Agora, the provocative and huge scramble of cast iron legs that people either love or hate at Roosevelt and Michigan. What were they filming in there? I wondered since last July.

Well, I found out in week seven--when the most disgruntled alderman of all has a conversation with the politician who won the primary and who has sex in places where he's apt to get caught. They talked about him dropping out of the race for governor to run against (and betray) the mayor--who the disgruntled Alderman Ross apparently thinks if he gets rid of will make him less disgruntled. But instead, the politician Ben Zajac sticks in the race for governor and also has an affair with Ross' wife (of which pictures were taken and sent to Ross), which really made him disgruntled.

Zajac tries to have an affair with Kane's wife, too. But she has an affair instead with someone who can help her husband kill the bad publicity over poisoning the kids in Bensenville.

In any case, it's all over for the moment. And returning next year, so they say. And all these characters, and then some, are left hanging in their angst. As am I.

All I know is, I saw the legs in a way--and from angles--I could never have imagined. What a place for two ruthless politicos to talk, the implication being that no one would ever be there to overhear them. After seeing these characters, it doesn't matter where they are. Run the other way.


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By tmac from Baltimore MD
Posted: 12/17/2011 5:20 AM

Me too- boy, do I miss this show! I'mtrying to get my family to watch it on-demand over the Christmas Holiday just so I have somebody to talk to about the show. It's real addiction. BTW- I hope Kitty keeps her baby!