CBS Pushes More “Cane” Than A Cripple

“This is the best part of being Cuban: you got that food, you got cigars, you got the rum mojitos. Ah?” So begins the above trailer for CBS fall drama “Cane,” simultaneously eliciting a cringe and a chuckle from anyone who watches Latino interpretation on TV closely. Set in Palm Beach, Florida, the show involves two Cuban households–the Duques and the Samuels–who lucratively operate a rum business and a sugar business, respectively. (Don’t they all?) Jimmy Smitts’ character, who was adopted into the family, inherits the reins of Duque rum against the protests of his biologically-entitled brother. The double-crossing that ensues breeds violent and sexy fun for the whole family, thus ensuring the show’s title works on a cheesy, biblical level. On one hand, we consider “Cane” pseudo-historic due to its primetime slot on network TV–something no English-language, Latino-centric program outside of “Ugly Betty” presides over these days. On the other, throwing guns and sex and shady business dealings together into a cauldron boiling over with raw Latin content could do a lot of harm without producing any good.

Speculation (i.e., the one trailer and three blurb-like synopses we found) leaves us too much on the fence to definitively conclude how it’ll turn out, so we’ve divided our judgment into convenient halves of extreme optimism and pessimism.

At best: South Florida Cubans get “The Sopranos” treatment, loaded with quality acting, directing, and writing that’ll transcend cultural tastes and entertain weekly.

At worst: South Florida Cubans get “The Sopranos” treatment, loaded with borderline offensive cliché after cliché that yokes a whole ‘nother generation of Latinos with stereotypes ripe for criticism by touchy advocates.