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

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

We're also living in the golden age of serialized TV - even the good comedies are serialized, to a degree - and there are only so many hours in the day. My wife and I have been catching up with Community, then we want to see season two of Justified, then we (she?) wants to watch Downton Abbey. And there a whole bunch queued up after that before we can get around the Luck. There are only so many narratives we can juggle at once, I guess.

well be sure and check back in once you watch it

re the difficulty in understanding wtf people r saying, it sounds like its even recorded or mixed weird, bad choice imho

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.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:58 AM (35 minutes ago)

ha i didnt watch deadwood until watching all of JFC and loving it

best horse racing scene ever filmed btw is climax of 1979 'black stallion'

watch it.

Agreed that Milch is dedicating himself to increasing the incomprehensibility with each show, and that it will probably hurt the audience - I really like the fact that I have to watch all these twice to really figure out what is up, though. (And the show's already been renewed for S2 afaik)

The Ace-Gus relationship (older married couple) seems like a more successful riff on the JfC subplot involving the hit men waiting Beckett-like in that motel and bickering - those scenes just went on forever to no real purpose, whereas the 'and how was your day, dear' codas with Ace and Gus seem really sweet emotionally and help to explain the plot.

I like how Nolte acts totally oblivious to the seething machinations of everybody around him, he's so focused on doing the right thing.

The Sports Illustrated article upthread is great if you want to understand the epidemic of horse breakdowns. I went into the 3rd ep knowing a lot more than I did before I read that

(And the show's already been renewed for S2 afaik)

it has, they're casting for extras at Santa Anita and start shooting at the end of the month

hm, next ep was directed by aussie phillip noyce

ratings dont look great but i dont really know what a sunday night hbo show is expected to do, esp. starting out; plus yeah, up against super bowl, the grammies, oscars in two weeks, they cant expect big #s those weeks

feel like there probably is a small female viewing base for this just based on subject matter

next ep was written by one of our (DRF's) columnists, Jay H0vdey

he's in the end credits of every ep as a staff writer but #4 he got the main credit at the opening

I guess at this point I should just fess up that I've seen the whole season (no spoilers). I was underwhelmed by episodes 2 and 3 after liking the pilot pretty well but it gets much better from here IMO.

i dont really know what a sunday night hbo show is expected to do, esp. starting out

I don't know either but I heard it was getting clobbered by Shameless in the same time slot

I would guess HBO probably takes the long view though, everyone watches these shows on DVR and DVD anyway

feel like there probably is a small female viewing base for this just based on subject matter

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:36 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah this is a srs man show

i get to go to the races in AZ next weekend, so stoked

dmr how do i find out who's running on the 26th?

this website is less than helpful: http://www.rillitodowns.com/Racing/Race_Entries_%26_Results.html

sorry i should prob take this to a racing thread

btw i watched 1975 altman movie California Split last nite.

so so so good i immediately wanted to watch it again. not really a horse racing movie but it revolves around gambling in general but has a few horse racing scenes and exists in the same so-cal world as this show imo.

highly recommended supplemental viewing

super dope 4 sure

love that movie

gr80 I answered you on the other thread

thanks, dmr.

Fantastic direction in this latest

slo-mo race scene was kind of weird, mostly awesome

Was wondering why no discussion on this. Best episode yet, I say. The race was beautiful.

Thought the music in The Big Scene was a bad choice (too heavy-handed) but it was still pretty great.

Gary Stevens was awesome in this episode (he is a retired Hall of Fame jockey in real life btw)

The Ray Charles song at the end was cool too

The music didn't bother me. In terms of heavy handeadness it felt far less so than the Sigur Ros in ep 1.

Confession: I watched the first ep and was completely mystified about what ppl were talking about. I guess I don't understand racing/betting-speak , lol. But those fucking horses were beautiful, and I am so in love with Michael Mann I just watched in a happy daze. :/

Yr not alone.

As much as I like the show, I'm really waiting for the DVD so I can watch it with subtitles and start picking up on some of the nuances in the dialogue (hopefully). This is he I watched Zdeadwood after all.

*Deadwood, obvs

i find it v odd that people shout the numbers of the horse when they're watching the race, like "go 8, come on 8" etc...my dad is quite into betting and he brought me to the track tons of times as a kid, you always say the horse's name in my experience.

I can see them changing that to make it easier for the audience.

yeah i figure that's why. it does stick out tho and leads me to my other complaint. i've only watched ep1 but i felt they spelled out some things like this that didn't matter that much, when other parts were way more convoluted and hard to follow, just based on cryptic rapidfire dialogue.

still v much enjoyed the start though, for a first ep that wasn't bad at all.

It's worth sticking with. Episode 4 was great.

There are a few instances where character background exposition is a little clunky, even if its delivered in Milchian dialogue. I think in regards to the pick 6 thing, the complicated nature was part of the world-building and was also not entirely significant to enjoying the race itself (they explained what they needed to happen easily enough to know who they were rooting for).

plenty of people yell out the numbers, it's how you place your bet at the betting window ($5 to win on the 2, etc)

could be a difference of habits in U.S. racegoers vs European I guess

also kinda carries an implication that you're either A) an inexperienced bettor who plays random numbers and birthdays or B) an experienced bettor who plays every singe race every single day. either way you can't be bothered to learn all the names and just know "I've got the 4 in this one"

definitely would always place my bet quoting or writing the number, for sure, it's not even legal not to do so i think here.

but i guess yeah for hardcore gamblers it's not like they'd be thinking hugely of the name of the horse. though would they be saying "go 8" at all instead of just "come on" or "go" or whatever?

it just felt a bit odd to me, i've prob been to race meetings 40/50 times but not for a few years now.

the other thing is, at irish/uk meetings you have this v distinctive tannoy commentating on the race which says the horse's name constantly, i think that prompts people to respond with the horse's name as he mentions it making a move or whatever.

obv this would be weird in the show, but do us tracks have that? the nasal quality and distinctively tunnely audio is probably one of the stand-out essential things you hear at a race meeting in ireland/uk.

like literally the exact way the announcer says "white flag is raised... and there off" is like it's been systematically taught to each one.

I think they use the real Santa Anita track announcer in this show during some of the race sequences. Trevor Denman. He's an Aussie.

Not sure if that's exactly what you're talking about though.

though would they be saying "go 8" at all instead of just "come on" or "go" or whatever?

I dunno, people yell all kindsa stuff. horse's name, the number, jockey's name, random string of profanities (if losing)

i need subtitles for this show

was it just me or was there a snippet of the heat soundtrack used near end of first episode?

feel like there probably is a small female viewing base for this just based on subject matter

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:36 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

even smaller after the violent breakdown in the first ep

i kind of want pt anderson to direct a few episodes

i like how much the show lets/makes hoffman & farina be like legit old men

was surprised the guys tshirts were "Foray" stables, thought it was talked abt as four A & also thought theyd go for that misunderstanding joke

some of the dialogue after the dude takes the valium & his convo w/ jerry was not good

This show is a boring waste of time.

you're a boring waste of time, time wasting boring person

nb i have not watched the last episode so it could have gone to shit

first episode was pretty good; show is mostly people mumbling and then going to sleep