Franklin Walraven (Anson Mount; Hell On Wheels) is ready to go legit and step away from the business he was brought in to by his wife’s Russian family. Unfortunately one of his wife’s brothers has taken it upon himself to rob, kill, and steal from a known drug lord, and at just the most inopportune moment as Franklin’s wife Martha (Radha Mitchell; Silent Hill: Revelations) has propositioned that he step away from the family business anyway and go legit or else risk losing his family. It’s a tough choice Franklin isn’t forced to make when he steps outside and is shot and killed.

While the show was suspenseful in the first half, things really start to pick up as Martha is forced to investigate weather or not the murder was committed by the drug lord or one of her own family members. With the police running an investigation on the murder as well as on Franklin, Martha must step out of her role as housewife and embrace the life she had hoped to get away from.

I’ll be honest - I wasn’t exactly thrilled going into this pilot. I has the sinking suspicion that the show would be just another Bella Mafia clone or something. I had no idea, though in this day and age I should have guessed, that the show is actually based on a Dutch series titled Penoza which came out in 2010. Either way I wasn’t expecting much.

The show was actually pretty good. It had just the right amount of grittiness, suspense, and quality acting that makes for good television. At no point did Radha Mitchell seem like she was playing tough, which I hate in female lead driven drama’s. Mitchell plays it vulnerable, with the ability to be vicious. Who knows what’s going to happen further down the line with her character.

I was also pleased to see a few familiar faces. Luke Goss (Blade 2, Hellboy 2) stars as a bodyguard for Martha’s father (Rade Serbedzija; Snatch, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1), a grizzled old gangster type whose character is somewhat masked by opposing characteristics. Is he good, bad, indifferent? Time will tell. You also have Clifton Collins Jr. (Parker, Boondock Saints II) as a cop who is sticking very close to the family. His character in this plot is neutral. Is he good, bad? Who knows what he is? Again, time will tell.

So far, from this pilot episode, things look good. I don’t usually follow television, but I might make this an exception. I’ll stick around long enough to see it go south, or to the end, hoping for season 2 to get there all the quicker. Keep an out for it and enjoy.