LUCK

[Govbarney]

Anyone watch the Pilot of Luck after Boardwalk Sunday?

I liked it , but I am also a big follower of the sport of Kings.

I was pleased that they did not dumb down the sport like so many TVs and movies in the horse racing genre do to appeal to the masses (think Seabiscuit vs. Let it Ride).

Do the non-Railbirders out there think this show's got legs?

[swerb]

Got it on DVR ... looking forward to watching it, previews looked good ...

[e0y2e3]

Yeah, I don't get the concept of running a preview episode for a Milch show that is going to take watching four episodes to get.

That said I am really, really, really looking forward to this.

Boardwalk gave me hope with the season finale, but this is my biggest hope on TV right now.

[mitch]

Didn't watch the preview...which is probably a good thing. But I'm definitely looking forward to this being a show to get me through my WINTER SUCKS period...along with Shameless and House of Lies.

(And let this be another place for me to bitch about how bad Dexter has been this season. I'm thinking of just fast forwarding through most of it and just catching the last five minutes...looks like it's going to be totally predictable and boring).

Spring is going to rock; Mad Men in March, Game of Thrones in April.

[e0y2e3]

Oh Shameless, how I irrationally love you...

BTW: Luck may very well be a show I wait until half-way through then marathon. Just feel like it will work better that way to adjust to the Milchisms again.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

What is the reasoning behind airing a pilot more than a month before episode 2?

[Govbarney]

Try to get the carry over audience from Boardwalk , in a attempt to generate more buzz. That is the only explanation I can think of.

[e0y2e3]

It was stupid. No one is going to have a clue what is going on and is going to have to wait seven weeks for follow-up.

And Hoffman! Nolte! Milch! Mann! Combined with advertising for over a year self-hypes.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Mann hasn't made anything worth watching since Heat. (fuck the Fresh Prince Ali).

If the subject matter is straight forward horse racing and gambling, I could give a shit less, if it's got criminal undertones I might check it out.

[e0y2e3]

It's not going to be bloody enough for you. This I am fairly certain of.

And Mann can still direct pretty things. Milch is running the show, not Mann.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

There's probably a serious lack of zombies and decapitations.

The casting interests me more than the subject matter. Dennis Farina and Michael Gambon? I like that.

[mitch]

Mann was pretty damn good with Collateral, and Public Enemies didn't suck.

I'm just hoping that Milch is back at NYPD Blue and Deadwood level of talent...and has used Barcardi 151 to kill off all brain cells responsible for "John from Cincinnati".

[e0y2e3]

There aren't aliens or suffers and Milch is a huge horse-racing guy and gambler.

Milch also was obsessed with the old west, Deadwood in particular.

If things are in his wheel-house (which this is) I fully expect him to crush them

Now the series of Tolstoy novels HBO is also paying him to develop scares me a bit, but has pretty huge upside.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Collateral was bird farts. Mann has had the disturbing habit of putting midgets in roles that should go to taller, more believable actors. Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Tom Cruise as a hitman is laughable.

[e0y2e3]

^ still a midget hater.....

(and Mann is only directing the first episode, mainly just there for a flashy name like Scorcese with Boadwalk)

[Orenthal]

I was with Collateral until the taxi driver kills the insane cold blooded midget hitman...

Gambon is my hero...

[motherscratcher]

Anyone watch?

[Govbarney]

Yeah , liked it , i think the shows got potential. Very realistic.

[mitch]

I'll give it a few episodes, but it's looking more John from Cincinnati than Deadwood from the pilot.

[Govbarney]

HBO announced today it has renewed it for a second season. So its already got a leg up on the 1 and done John From Cincy.

[swerb]

Watched episode 1. Love the premise. Love horse racing. Episode 1 was meh.

Am going back to watch Game of Thrones though.

[e0y2e3]

I don't know why anyone would pass any judgement on a show like this after one episode. Fuck, I'm not even watching until I can bang out four in a row. This is going to be reeeeeeally slow developing. That is the new drama (christ, it took four episodes in Season 4 of Mad Men and BB before anyone even took a shit). Combining slow development with Milch dialogue means it will need time to get it's pieces in line.

And comparing this to John in Cincy in any way is silly. Milch is just trying to make a TV show here, like NY PD Blue, like Deadwood, etc. He went nuts with John from Cincy and proclaimed he was making an existential statement rather than just a show. Every movement was some or the other philisophical silliness.

This is TV, not the spiritual connectiveness as told through surfers and aliens and as interpretted by David Milch.

You can like it or not, no issues there, but it won't be Deadwood just like Deadwood wasn't early NY PD Blue. And it sure as hell is nowhere near what John from Cincy was in aim or goal.

(note: I didn't like John from Cincy, I'm not arguing anyone should have, just pointing out it was a very very unique project and was meant to be unique)

Personally I just wonder if Milch needs to go back on heroine like he was for the first chunk of his life.

[e0y2e3]

Am going back to watch Game of Thrones though.

Before Breaking Bad????

SMH

[swerb]

Am going back to watch Game of Thrones though.

Before Breaking Bad????

SMH

I'm halfway through season three of BB. Just taking a little break. Love it.

[Govbarney]

Am going back to watch Game of Thrones though.

Before Breaking Bad????

SMH

I'm halfway through season three of BB. Just taking a little break. Love it.

Be carefully , Breaking Bad , and Game of Thrones are two shows that once you get into them, will make you want to quit your job, and leave your family just to see that next episode on Netflix/OnDemand

[jerryroche]

Two horses broke legs while filming the first episodes, had to be put away. Production delayed. PETA going ape-shit.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TV_LUCK_HORSE_DEATHS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-10-20-11-35

[motherscratcher]

Two horses broke legs while filming the first episodes, had to be put away. Production delayed. PETA going ape-shit.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TV_LUCK_HORSE_DEATHS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-10-20-11-35

No way. PETA going ape-shit about something? Well now I've heard everything.

Usually they're so reasonable.

[swerb]

This show may be worse than John From Cincinnati.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Wow. Now that's condemnation.... worse than John From Cincy.

[mitch]

This show may be worse than John From Cincinnati.

I'm done with this wreck as well. Milch has lost it worse than Steve Sax's throwing motion.

Bring on Mad Men and Game of Thrones.

[Hikohadon]

Public Enemies didn't suck.

That would not be my review at all.

It had scenes that didn't suck. In fact, a few of them would've made fine short films.

Overall, it was a complete mess. Starting with the fact that I didn't buy that stupid romance for one damn minute.

[swerb]

This show may be worse than John From Cincinnati.

I'm done with this wreck as well. Milch has lost it worse than Steve Sax's throwing motion.

Bring on Mad Men and Game of Thrones.

Like with John From Cincinnati, it's almost as if the intention is to make the show suck. The casting, the writing, the story line, the stupid and uneccessary plot diversions ... the show BLOWS.

When this show came out, I thought to myself "there's no way I can not really enjoy a Sunday night HBO drama about horse racing."

God I was wrong.

Makes the last 8 episodes of The Killing seem like Band of Brothers. It's inconceivable that this is the same guy that created Deadwood.

[e0y2e3]

I haven't watched this but I am very shocked that it is still being compared to John from Cincy by you guys.

There is the whole not being about surfer angels thing....

I'll obviously give it a shot when I get time and fully expect to like but not love it. I'm pretty sure you guys are just getting really impatient for shit to go down, which wouldn't shock me and would fit in line with pretty much every HBO show now.

Meh.

[rebelwithoutaclue]

It'd definitely a slow burn but it has potential. Dustin Hoffman by himself is enough for me to keep watching; he completely commands the screen every time he's on. My main gripe is the multiple characters that are very hard to understand i.e. Nick Nolte, Escalante, and the Irish jockey woman. Even Richard Kind (agent for the jockey's?) is hard to understand with his stuttering mannerisms.


Also, it seems like there are a ton of subplots going on right now; it's very hard to follow. Milch hasn't really given much time to introducing the characters before throwing us right into their day-to-day lives, which makes it seem like nothing is going on. Most of the episodes just seem to end, which doesn't give you that "can't wait til next week" feeling that all the great shows have.


In summation, I'm sticking with it because of Dustin Hoffman and the potential, but christ, it is Rubicon slow. To compare it to John from Cinci is just jumping the gun as it seemed like even the showrunners/writers had no idea what the fuck was going on with that steaming pile of horseshit. I can definitely see Milch's vision for Luck.

[Govbarney]

Its slow going, and has some major story telling flaws, and I agree there are casting issues, but for now I am going to stick with it.

So far out of the 3 plots in the show (Hoffman's, Nick Nolte's, and the Pick6 Winners who Claim/buy a horse) I like the story of the Pick6 winners the most, Its moving at a decent clip, and mixes in more humor then the other two stories. The Nick Nolte Story looks to be picking up steam, after he finally raced that 3yr old. To me the Hoffman story is the one really dragging the show through the mud, and now they want to give lonely old Dustin a love interest (for the first few episodes I was convinced Dustin and Dennis Farina where in some sort of old man lemon party homosexual relationship.)

One thing I will say for this show is it is a incredibly realistic portrayal of the horse racing industry; which I believe may be confusing some viewers, but has kept my attention. Milch has always been a huge fan of the sport , and obviously knows the in's and out's. But the way he is going about telling the story and making this show the least bit entertaining is a mystery to me. He would have been better off making a documentary about a day in the life at the track. (speaking of which , if you want to see a good documentary on horse racing watch 'The First Saturday in May' which follows the '06 Derby trail, by far the best Horse Racing Doc I have ever seen.)

I was at Beulah Park in Cbus last Saturday , and shot the shit with a few horse players and a apprentice trainer I am friends with, the subject of the show came up and everyone had for the most part a positive review, which didn't surprise me, people where just happy to finally see a real portrayal of life at the track, not the watered down portrayal Hollywood normally spits out.

When I first heard about this show I read this quote from Milch on his love of horse racing "I hope it's a love letter. By saying that, I'm not saying it's a story coming through rose-colored glasses. To me, the track is what the river was to Mark Twain. Where you see the most life and interesting people, go there. That's what I've done."
That passion he has for the sport is what got me really excited for this show, and that's why I am holding out hope.

[e0y2e3]

This is a real good piece on what is going on with television these days:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/did-the- ... -th,69596/

Frankly the phenom is just getting worse. Last season Breaking Bad had that awesome Gus murder in the first episode and the proceeded to spend four episodes just lining up players like chess pieces with literally nothing happened. Mad Men season three actually started a popular movement against the show and now Milch is taking it to an even further extreme with his show that is just a literal demonstration of horse racing.

This is one of the reasons Homeland was so refreshing (and I didn't watch that till well after it aired), for once a TV show was a TV show again. It's also one of the great aspects of Justified.

I don't understand why great TV shows are literally living in a world where they are trying to out-slow each other to death, but it is very clearly happening.

(and sprinkle on with this show Milch is just being 100% literal with the horse racing stuff because he is pompous like that.... most critics have said this is a show where watching an episode twice actually has a huge reward, but again, just because the art is so great why does it have to be so in our faces about it, audience pleasure should still play a role)

[e0y2e3]

And I still blindly maintain that a literal interpretation of horse racing cannot be as bad as a biblical demonstration in the esoteric using an effed up surfer family and an uberman to tell its story.

[Govbarney]

And I still blindly maintain that a literal interpretation of horse racing cannot be as bad as a biblical demonstration in the esoteric using an effed up surfer family and an uberman to tell its story.

Amen

[mitch]

Cancelled after they managed to kill a third horse.

It will not be missed.

[swerb]

Train wreck.

[motherscratcher]

I had 4 episodes left when it was cancelled. Original plan was to just delete them but I decided I might as well burn through them.

Not too bad at the end. The last 2 episodes were pretty good. Made me a little bit sad that it was cancelled as i saw some potential moving forward.

[peeker643]

I had 4 episodes left when it was cancelled. Original plan was to just delete them but I decided I might as well burn through them.

Not too bad at the end. The last 2 episodes were pretty good. Made me a little bit sad that it was cancelled as i saw some potential moving forward.

You have to have a Vitamin D deficiency.

At least put the TV out on the deck or patio in the summer, okay?

[rebelwithoutaclue]

Entirely worth it just for Dustin Hoffman and Michael Gambon. Nolte was also good though pretty incoherent, a dream role really. Sad to see it go; it had great potential.

[Govbarney]

Rosie just won the Kentucky Oaks , first female to ever win the race , and also the biggest race ever won by a female Jock.

Granted this Rosie is Rosie Napravnik, she's hot, but not a lick of Irish in her.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Depraved.

http://www.kentuckyderby.info/kentuckyderby-party.php

[Govbarney]

One of my favorite Thompson quotes comes from that article:

"But from now on let's try to be careful when we're around people I know. You won't sketch them and I won't Mace them. We'll just try to relax and get drunk."

[Cerebral_DownTime]

One of my favorite Thompson quotes comes from that article:

"But from now on let's try to be careful when we're around people I know. You won't sketch them and I won't Mace them. We'll just try to relax and get drunk."

The story about the Sailboat races is still one of my favorites. He and Steadman took a bunch of Mescaline and tried to paint "Fuck the Pope" on the Australian team boat.