Review: ‘Game of Silence’ is a slam-bang revenge tale with a terrible secret

For a show called “Game of Silence,” there’s a lot of shouting. Also gunfire, fistfights, angry threats and most other forms of masculine fury, including and especially arguments that result in everyone deciding that “we can’t let those [choose your plural expletive] get away with it.”

The opposite of a “whodunit,” NBC’s new 10-episode drama, adapted from a Turkish series, follows more of a “what exactly did they do and, more importantly, how will they be made to pay” story line in which every plot point is punched, and then punched again, just in case you, the viewer, were not clear about the deadly drama and super-high stakes that are going down here.

It’s difficult at times to understand who’s seeking revenge on whom — there are several story lines, often convoluted — but you do need to be clear about the drama and the stakes.

Deadly. Super-high.

This is made clear from the moment we meet the main character, first in mournful memoir narration and then in real-time splendor. Jackson Brooks (“Revolution’s” David Lyons) is the classic Man Who Has It All. A successful Houston defense attorney, he lives in a big, fancy house where he is about to marry Marina (Claire van der Boom), a member of Houston’s elite (and, weirdly, his boss). Presumably the ceremony will involve 7,000 hand-glazed orange blossoms and a guest appearance by Vera Wang.

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So even without the elliptical introductory narration, you know that this man has a secret, and before you can say, “This is not my beautiful house,” it is revealed. Well, sort of.

Way back in the mid-’80s, when kids were still free to ride their bikes to the quarry where they would drink Boone’s Farm and set off a bunch of firecrackers, Jackson and a group of his friends did something bad.

Attempting to save his girl Jessie from her drunken mom, Jackson and his friends took a joy ride that ended in disaster, and the four boys, none of whom appear to have a parent to their name, wound up serving nine months in the Quitman Youth Detention Facility.

There, terrible things happened, including but not limited to physical abuse and a riot. When the boys returned home, they never spoke of it again (the “Silence” of the title), but none of them were ever quite the same.

As Jackson explains, he has obviously pulled himself up and out, but the others were not so lucky. Gil (Michael Raymond-James) is currently a bar fight waiting to happen, Shawn (Larenz Tate) a sweet guy who just can’t stay married, and Boots (Derek Phillips), well, Boots seems fine until, chancing upon a guy from Quitman, he loses his mind and beats him to death with a handy golf club.

This sparks a reunion of the group — who else are Gil and Shawn going to call but their friend the big-shot defense attorney? — as well as a series of absurd but narratively necessary events that force even the initially “leave me out of it” Jackson to agree that the Time Has Come for payback.

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That the evil warden (Conor O’Farrell) has just announced his “family values” candidacy for Senate and some of his lackeys are members of a local gang/drug cartel with enemies of their own only makes things more complicated/dangerous/necessary/overwrought. Oh, and Jessie (Bre Blair) is with Gil now, and spends most of the early episodes insisting that A) she knows the guys are up to something, and B) they need to let her help, which is just as annoying as it sounds.

Lyons and Tate do their best to add some character ballast to the propulsion, but “Game of Silence” is completely uninterested in nuance or even decent dialogue. Why burden the already overburdened plot with character development when you can just turn up the ominous soundtrack? Or use a bunch of flashbacks, many of which unforgivably tease the sexual abuse of children?

Comparisons to Barry Levinson’s “Sleepers” are inevitable, but with its cartoonish villains, hideously ritualized crimes and general plot-stomping, it is far more reminiscent of all those pulpy TV movies in the late ‘70s, in which a depraved warden/sheriff abused those in his care. Strangely, this is its greatest strength. “Game of Silence” dispenses with the depth that defines much of modern TV drama, and there is something liberating in that. Fueled by rage, it just wants revenge, and the viewer needs to either get with the program or get out of the way.

Twitter: @marymacTV

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‘Game of Silence’

Where: NBC

When: 10 p.m. Tuesday (pilot)

Rating: TV-14-SV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for sex and violence)

When: 10 p.m. Thursday (regular time slot)

Rating: TV-14-LV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for coarse language and violence)