Luck

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

Okay, in over 160 minutes, the biggest happening was a group of stereotype degenerates hit a pick 6. And the fallout?

- one of them gets nearly beaten to death by two run down prostitutes/grifters over some insurance scam that never turned out. (not sure but i think that is why they beat him up)

- one of them loses a couple of hands of cards and wins a nice pot against a cliche chinese restaruant owner/poker player

- one of them wants to claim a horse but loses in a shake but then goes back and buys the horse at 4x the claim.

- one is grumpy and rides on his mechanized wheel chair with his loot in a pillow case.


Call me a snob, but i don't find any of this very interesting. Certainly no knock on anyone that does. And i appreciate the sentiment- i hope it gets better as well.

It's not easy to make this type of show for modern horse racing.

Two of the bettors (the degen who plays poker and the guy in the wheel chair) are belivable and remind me of people I know from the track.

They really have to reach in a lot of areas to get the drama...where incredible true story drama and charchters would have been there in a late 1800's time period.

I still have enjoyed the first 3 episodes though.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

So Luck has an indirect comparison to War and Peace.

And now the show gets the label it was screaming for from the beginning:


Pretentious

haven't watched luck, don't plan to.

war and peace was a very, very good book.

Originally Posted by goodcopy

Dennis Farina and Dustin Hoffman are the most most "watchable" characters on a so far terrible written dis-jointed mini series that has some signs of life as of episode 3.
Nick Nolte is incomprehensible,the 4 Grinders that won the pick 6 are completely unbelievable,Gary Stevens either never had or loss all ability to act(could you believe the seen where he contemplates a thought by scratching his chin for 3 1/2 minutes).
The best seen so far is where Dennis Farina and Dustin Hoffman are grilling the young "no it all" and Dennis makes him shake his hand .
The Julio character may be the closest to the real thing except the fact he never bedded a foxy veterinarian.
How about the seen where two stakes potential 2 year olds with different trainers are working from the gate in a 3 furlong match race.
There is just to much inaccurate stuff and the writers need to either write a interesting story about racing be it true or not or go ahead and make a documentary with complete accuracy and no poetic licence because they are trying to do both and failing in the most part

Or they could just get it over with and line all of their favorite actors up and have a rainbow party with them. Because that's what I'm getting from the show so far. Adulation of old actors.

[tbonds]

Thats why I get on the tread mill and watch it for a second time. Hell, I even pick up things that I didn't get the first time. I really enjoy the grunts and broken english. It just makes it alot more realistic.

[Linny]

Hoffman is the biggest name in the show and I have found his role hard to get. Clearly he's a big, connected business guy who took a fall and did time, but he appears closer to Rain Man than an all powerful guy. He even walks in that shuffle. I hope the character becomes less stiff. This is a guy that one would assume would be the commanding figure in a meetings etc and yet other than the outburt with the ripped shirt, he seems almost timid.

I also agree that there is little likeable out the 4 degenerates. None seem to have the redeeming quality that makes you root for them in spite of themselves. I hope that changes. I get that they have compressed many different "gambler characteristics" in to just 4 guys, but it sure would be nice if one of them was appealing on some level.

In the same way, they have taken many "typical horse trainer" qualities and crammed them into two men who end up looking like stereotypes; the old hardboot and the hispanic guy with cheaper horses who gets involved with a shady but wealthy owner to aquire a fancy stakes horses.

I think Gary has been good and the bug rider has done a good job of being "naive kid" but that might be easy for him if he doesn't understand racing.

[tbonds]

With Garys role, I wonder how far they will take him down.
Is his role along the lines of VP?

[richard]

HBO video recap of series so far.

http://www.hbo.com/luck/index.html#/...ayMQIAVKYXOA==

[TouchOfGrey]

Maureen Ryan: Why You Should Stick With Luck

I've had a lot of discussions with various people -- readers, friends, Twitter followers, my spouse -- about "Luck" in recent weeks. People who've struck up conversations about "Luck" don't know whether to stick with it, and I keep asking them to do so -- for just one more episode, at least.

I've developed a short pitch for the show that I feel bears repeating here: If you've liked David Milch's work in the past, give the first four episodes of the show a try. If, after Episode 4, you don't want to watch more, fair enough. But anyone who sticks with the show that long will likely stay with it until the end, and the end is really worth the ride.

[richard]

I watched episodes 2 and 3 twice. How can you not smile at the shot of the Four A Stable (Jerry,Marcus,Lonnie, Renzo) holding their carrots out with open hands near the end of episode 3. The next shot was a close up of Mon Gateau watching these characters, as you just did, and wondering, as you just did, what the hell is going on now?

[PatCummings]

Overall, I wish the "every-part-of-this-needs-to-be-real-or-else-I'll-find-something-to-dislike-and-talk-about-it" phase of this show would stop, and the general enjoyment/entertainment would begin.

I don't think mobsters and their associates sat around after the first three episodes of The Sopranos and said - "come on, Tony didn't eat enough bracciole" or "your office doesn't have that many files in it to make it look legitimate" or "when I whack guys, they don't fall like that"

Let's stop overanalyzing the trees and start enjoying the forest.

Lets be fat and stupid.

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by richard

In the Paulick Report Cot Campbell bemoans Luck.
" But I think—in the interest of some accuracy—that the attractive, sporting, pageantry side of racing should be given at least a nod."

Campbell is right. They should totally do a balanced series of episodes where they show the rise and fall of a highly touted horse. The first half would be the pageantry: The horse would be the half-brother of an upstart Kentucky Derby winner. He would be sold at a 2yo-in-training sale to a famed racing syndicate for $500,000. He would be turned over to a corporate trainer that wins everything. He would show stakes quality in his initial starts.

Then the seedy underside: His form will take an abrupt nose dive. He'll disappear from the racetrack for a year. He'll return as a gelding. He'll make a comeback and fail miserably. Rather than retirement, the racing syndicate will turn him over to another trainer on a lesser circuit and run him for $5,000, 1% of his original purchase price. The horse will win, but he'll also be claimed.

The audience is left wondering if the horse will be sentenced to a career of complete decline, running for starter fees in Pennsylvania or if he'll go on a massive tear in $5k starters a la Rapid Redux...

Pageantry, Sportsmanship. If Brother Bird had a middle finger, he'd reserve it for Cot Campbell.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Campbell is right. They should totally do a balanced series of episodes where they show the rise and fall of a highly touted horse. The first half would be the pageantry: The horse would be the half-brother of an upstart Kentucky Derby winner. He would be sold at a 2yo-in-training sale to a famed racing syndicate for $500,000. He would be turned over to a corporate trainer that wins everything. He would show stakes quality in his initial starts.

Then the seedy underside: His form will take an abrupt nose dive. He'll disappear from the racetrack for a year. He'll return as a gelding. He'll make a comeback and fail miserably. Rather than retirement, the racing syndicate will turn him over to another trainer on a lesser circuit and run him for $5,000, 1% of his original purchase price. The horse will win, but he'll also be claimed.

The audience is left wondering if the horse will be sentenced to a career of complete decline, running for starter fees in Pennsylvania or if he'll go on a massive tear in $5k starters a la Rapid Redux...

Pageantry, Sportsmanship. If Brother Bird had a middle finger, he'd reserve it for Cot Campbell.

This is so great.

[wac]

the race scene with the strings in the background was one of the best scenes i have ever seen in a tv show. it was so friggin beautiful. the looks on the faces of everyone watching including the agent b/c his heart is dropping to his stomach, the trainer crying b/c he is connected to the horse and that he knows has something. No matter how it shakes out that has to be an unreal feeling to own/train a horse and watch it run its 1st race and know that you may have something special. i like the show a lot and hope the rest of you guys keep up. the pace seems to be picking up as well. but that scene i rewound it 3 times to watch it again and i swear i almost started crying and im a 40yr old man. That feeling must be one of the sweetest in the world.

That race felt longer than the Melbourne Cup and it seemed like there were 24 horses in the race.

[wac]

agree coach race was a little long but i go back to the emotional part of it, even the degenerat gambler on oxygen knew that he had seen a great performance and i know what that feels like to be at the track and see something like that it leaves me speechless. just a friggin great scene. i remembered reading somewhere in a review for the show that in the 4th episode there was an unreal scene and they were right.

What wac said. Episode 4 tonight was the best one yet. The depiction of the race with Nolte's horse had a decent musical backdrop and used cutaways to what all the characters were involved in. I thought this was well done. Pacing problems not evident and I could (mostly) hear what the characters were saying.


Ocala Mike

[dalakhani]

Watching nick nolte do the clapping thing on the side of his binoculars was the highlight of the show. Is he supposed to be muddy waters or blind melon chittlin?

[trackrat59]

I watched Luck tonight although I did not watch ep #3. I did like #4.

The dude losing all his money playing cards is turning my stomach a bit. Not that he's hard on the eyes, just the fact that he hit the P6 and is pooping it all away.

The race scene was amazing for all reasons listed in previous posts. One of the longest stretch runs in history.

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

too much talking to the horse by nicks the'trainer' ..think stevens is doing a great job..