Luck: HBO series: David Milch, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Mann

Dustin Hoffman + Miami Vice's Cochi Loco

loving John Ortiz on twitter. he seems like a bro. Escalante is the best character.

I'm starting to think that Nolte's character is gonna be this series' Ellsworth. He's even got a pooch as a sidekick.

Second episode definitely better than the first, or maybe I'm just growing into the show more. That birther bit, and that whole scene, really, was hysterical.

thinking abt it, it's amazing how much set-up they've packed into these 1st 2 eps

the scene between Ace and Gus where they explained Ace's prison stint was really clunky. I guess the writers just wanted to get the whole backstory out there in one shot but it didn't really make sense to have them tell each other a drawn-out story that they both already knew.

is episode 3 on HBO Go now or was it only the second ep that they put up early?

just second ep. third isn't up yet.

the scene between Ace and Gus where they explained Ace's prison stint was really clunky. I guess the writers just wanted to get the whole backstory out there in one shot but it didn't really make sense to have them tell each other a drawn-out story that they both already knew.

yeah it was jarring how out of character this was compared to everything else

By the way this is the Alydar story I was referring to upthread, the real-life version of the Delphi plotline. Had not ever heard about this until Luck came out.

Suspicious death

On November 13, 1990, Alydar appeared to have shattered his right hind leg in his stall at Calumet Farms in Lexington, Kentucky. Emergency surgery was performed the next day in an attempt to repair the injury, but the leg broke again. On November 15, Alydar was euthanized. At the time the owner of Calumet Farm was in dire trouble financially, and suspicions of foul play by the management were raised. John Thomas (J.T.) Lundy was indicted and convicted in 2000 on separate fraud charges and served nearly four years in prison. The farm's former attorney, Gary Matthews, was also convicted and received a 21-month prison sentence.

In Houston Federal Court, MIT Professor George Pratt testified that Alydar had to have been killed.[3] He speculated that someone had tied the end of a rope around Alydar's leg and attached the other end of the rope to a truck that could easily have been driven into the stallion barn. The truck then took off, pulling Alydar's leg from underneath him until it snapped; he testified that the force involved was at least three times that which a horse was able to exert. About five days before Alydar's injury his original night watchman, Harold "Cowboy" Kipp, testified that he was at work on the farm when he was ordered to take Tuesday, November 13th off.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alydar

Alydar was second in the 1978 Derby, Preakness and Belmont behind Affirmed, who won the Triple Crown

yeesh. so it was like an insurance scam or?

allegedly yeah. but never proven it court that the death wasn't an accident.

in court

liked this one better than #2.

i think i always need a good 4 or five episodes w/ milch before i get in the groove though.

I dug this episode a lot.

after being confounded by episode 2, gf and I have decided to let this sit on the dvr until about episode 5 or 6 to see if the immersion method improves things. Good to know people are liking it though.

MZS on Episode 3 and why should stick it out

I think he's seen the whole season though.

The most resonant scene in the episode, if you're looking for critical metaphors, is the one in which the four amigos (who name their stable 4A) go to visit Escalante, hear an itemized tutorial on what it costs to train Mon Gateau, then ask if they can get to know the animal. Escalante hands each of them a carrot and tells them how to offer it to the horse. "Keep your hand open," he warns them. The scene cuts after successive images of the four men holding out carrots and the horse regarding them warily.

^^loved this scene, especially the way it ended like that

Best thing about this episode: the promise that Joan Allen will be appearing in future ones.

dont like that the derivative kid's name is nathan israel

love that they are using the bbq @ ep's end

haha yeah that was a nice touch

Missed that.

re the horse scene and the cosmicness of horse scenes in general are a strong contrast to the pettiness of the humans, def my fav thing abt the show so far

it dawns on them that they are meeting this horse, its a living thing that they have a connection with now and they should make some sort of gesture and they all kinda lose it

overall my enjoyment of the show has been intermittent, feels a lil uneven idk

the scene w/escalante in his house w/the vet when he says you wanna do it vibed the most mannian to date, i guess he didnt direct that ep tho

it dawns on them that they are meeting this horse, its a living thing that they have a connection with now and they should make some sort of gesture and they all kinda lose it

otm, also i feel the symbolism of them standing with their hands open in front of an unpredictable beast after receiving a laundry list of expenses is some very cool ~foreshadowing~

yeah good point do they own the horse or does the horse... own them

i eat all your carrots i eat them up

irl lol

just imagining the horse saying that to them

what if mid-season we started hearing all the horses' inner-dialogue

in the voices of bruce willis + roseanne barr

lolz i had the idea that s2 should be like the movie 'racing stripes' - talking horses all the time

when I first saw the pilot I was kind of annoyed that they had a fatal breakdown so early on. like "really, they had to go there in the pilot??"

but as you watch more episodes I feel like that scene adds tension to every racing scene. you're watching these spindly legs pound the ground and wondering whether one little step is gonna take you back to that gruesome scene from the pilot. I think that's why they put it in the first episode, to show the stakes and make you feel how the trainers feel, that even when things are going great you're one little stumble away from disaster

also presumably bc mann wanted the opportunity to direct the fuck out that scene and not leave it for someone to do in a later episode

the racing scenes are p intense/terrifying

i was thinking about how much work they must be logistically-- like three horses running close together from an aerial shot, then the same three horses in the same formation from a tracking shot, cut to a 2nd tracking shot, etc

yeah they must have to run and film each race multiple times to make the various racing "moves" happen at the right time for the narrative

like "so-and-so drops back early, is boxed along the rail, eyeballs his rival but finally pulls away" ... it's got to be really hard to make a whole bunch of horses end up with a scripted result like that

totally-- it makes the racing scenes all the more exciting to watch imo

the other thing I like about the show is how it represents the rhythms and routines of track life, like each episode starts with people waking up, there's morning workouts, then a big crescendo for the afternoon's races -- maybe you win, maybe you lose, let's go talk it over at the bar and get ready to do it all again tomorrow

always ends with Ace and Gus shooting the shit in Ace's bedroom

is it just me or does it seem like no one is watching this? (not on ILX particularly, but like, out in the world). I don't really hear anyone talk about it.

I think they fucked up by having episode 2 air against the Super Bowl. I know it was already renewed and the ratings are supposed to be ok but doesn't really seem to have much buzz except among critics.

i could def see this being not popular

btw why is ace so intent on sending this kid to annoy his enemy

and ace is kinda big shot huh he mumbles something and the bord moves $50m like nbd

I thought the kid was going to be the go-between he said he needed in episode 2.

refresh my memory if you dont mind

I think John From Cincinnati did a lot to derail the Milch train, tbh. Like, I loved Deadwood and I think Michael Mann is a genius, but I haven't even downloaded this yet, and that's free.

interesting

so many characters on this show are hard to understand

like from one scene to the next you go from the trainer with the difficult Spanish accent (that other characters joke about not understanding), to the trainer who just mumbles shit under his breath and talks to himself, to the guy who stammers

it seems like Milch wants it to be a "thing" (the importance of getting good information vs. all these communication barriers or something)

but with all that + the racing jargon it seems like he's holding the audience at arm's length a bit and almost wants to make it as tough as possible to know wtf is going on