The Black Donnellys: Difference between revisions

* {{spoiler|[[Downer Ending]]}}

* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]

* [[First Girl Wins]]: It's not that Tommy doesn't date. It's ''certainly'' not that Tommy doesn't notice other women. But Jenny Reilly will always have his heart.

** {{spoiler|She doesn't really ''win'', though, as they don't necessarily end up together.}}

* [[Flash Back]]: Each episode includes flashbacks to the boys' childhood. Technically, the entire series is a flashback, as Joey is telling the story from an unspecified point in the future.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Joey occasionally indulges, mentioning something at the beginning of an episode that only makes full sense at the end.

** Similarly, [[Four Philosophy Ensemble]]: Jimmy (The Cynic), Tommy (The Realist), Kevin (The Apathetic) and Sean (The Optimist).

* [[Framing Device]]: Joey Ice Cream narrates the entire story from prison. To anyone who will listen. Sometimes this is cops or lawyers who are asking for the story in order to find evidence or facts. Sometimes it's the guard sitting outside Joey's cell who just wants him to shut up.

* [[The Gambling Addict]]: Kevin, and he loses a lot, although he has good instincts. ([[It Makes Sense in Context|It's a]] [[Daddy Issues]] thing.) Jimmy also won the Firecracker in a bet, although we don't know with whom.

* [[Guns Akimbo]]: Joey does this in the penultimate episode when Tommy goes after Dokey. {{spoiler|OK, no, he doesn't, [[Unreliable Narrator|but that's the first version he tells.]]}}

** Nicky is [[Oz|Miguel Alvarez]], [[Band of Brothers (TV)|Joe Toye]] and [[Fringe|Charlie Francis]]

** Samson is [[Twenty Four|Jack Bauer's sidekick]], a [[Rubicon|twitchy codebreaker]] and Joey Ice Cream's [[The Pacific|Marine buddy]]

** In possibly the harshest example, when the brothers don't tell her the real reason behind Sean's beating, she comes to the conclusion that his girlfriend Kim was responsible and accordingly chases Kim off harshly. When Kim refuses to return Sean's calls later on, he assumes that it's because she was turned off by watching him get his ass kicked, and Helen is content to let him think this - until ''Kevin'' informs him what really happened.

* [[Mob War]]

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]

* [[Off the Wagon]]: Tommy gets Jimmy arrested and sent to jail in order to get him into rehab. Kevin goes behind Tommy's back and bails Jimmy out. Jimmy immediately thanks Kevin and goes to find his dealer.