Paramount Pictures has announced an alliance with none other than Martin Scorsese to produce and direct films and television. Paramount will be paying Mr. Raging Bull $2 million a year for the next four years just to find and develop projects.

To date Scorsese's TV projects have been limited to documentaries about American cinema and Lady Liberty. He did an Amazing Stories episode for Spielberg, but not much else. Scorsese at his best could bring some fine gangster action to a post-Sopranos world. At his worst, we could get overblown, mediocre crap resting on its laurels.

(S04E05) "If you with us, you with us." -- Chris Partlow.

In the opener (and does any other show have such consistently clever opening scenes?) the kids are shown being kids. The four boys, who have been forced by circumstances to grow up fast, are still capable of more than half-believing in zombies like the ones they see in horror movies. Late one night they tell each other scary stories. But they're imaginings aren't that far off the mark, when they credit Marlo's enforcer Chris with making zombies. Another kind of zombie -- an addict created by the likes of Chris and Marlo -- stumbles down the alley and the boys flee in terror. The devil's hard to keep down in the hole ...