Michael Vick is going to do everything he can to make us forgive him for dog fighting. He knows what he did was wrong and wants everyone to know that he's sorry. Unfortunately, we're not buying it.

Tonight, The Michael Vick Project takes us on a journey to the Virgina kennel where Vick kept, fought, and ultimately murdered scores of innocent dogs. At first, we think that this trip might arouse some kind of emotional response—something that would make his guilt apparent. What we're left with, instead, are a lot of would-be heartfelt moments that ultimately shed no new light on his sense of remorse.

As this scene goes on and Vick continues to take his camera crew around the compound, he comes off less like someone who wants to be forgiven because he's truly sorry for what he's done and more like someone who is reading from a very well-written apology speech. He looks almost empty. And while the footage of these places and the stories he's telling are powerful, his mannerisms and speech patterns don't indicate that he's feeling much of anything-shock, maybe, but nothing other than that.

After showing us the exact spot where a lot of the fighting occurred, Vick comes across a stray leash hanging off the side of a fence. With clever editing and the right musical cues, images like these are supposed to make the audience feel like something moving might be about to happen. Bring up the music! Cue the tears!

But, of course, none ever come. It's right about here that the show just makes you want to reach into the TV and shake Vick violently until he breaks his facade just a little bit because you begin to feel like no amount of "I'm sorry"s and "I wish I could take it back"s are going to make it any easier to forgive and forget.

In the end, this show is less about him and more about us, the audience. What we want is to see a man who's done something cruel really repent for it, but what we get is a whole lot of disappointment. Vick can't and won't be the kind of man who will make it easier for us to forgive him. He's been to jail, done his community service and is already back in uniform and on the field. He's moved past it. So, even though we may watch this wanting a Stanley Kowalsky, what we get is more of a Forrest Gump in terms of the kind of show he'll put on for our forgiveness.

Vick, we know you're sorry. It wouldn't kill you to let us see it a little more.

[BET]