Thoughts on "Luck" Cancellation

It's been interesting reading articles and comments about HBO's abrupt decision to cancel "Luck" after a third horse died onset during filming of the second season. I'm very disappointed by this decision because I thought the show, while not perfect, was amazingly produced, written, and acted.

I was probably predisposed to liking Luck, due to being a huge fan of NYPD Blue and Deadwood and the much-maligned John from Cincinnati. Still, I went into the show with an open mind and was cautiously optimistic about it after watching the first episode. It looked beautiful, but I didn't understand some of what was going or what some of the characters said (Escalante and Nick Nolte's Walter Smith). So I watched the first episode again. And I immediately had an emotional reaction to every scene.

That was the amazing thing about Luck. You didn't have to understand everything that was going on. But Luck demanded that you feel it. It was as if the show aimed at your heart first and then let your brain catch up later. And that's an impressive and difficult thing to do on television with a large ensemble and without the convenience of voice-overs or gratuitous exposition (okay, ANY exposition).

Luck also didn't have a main character, which in itself is innovative. Most ensemble shows have some strong lead, probably the most famous actor. But anyone who saw beyond the first episode would know that Dustin Hoffman's spectacular performance of Ace Bernstein was just one piece in a large puzzle. This is a show that gave equal time between Oscar winners and a stammering unlucky jockey Agent played by Richard Kind (whose most recognizable role is Larry's annoying cousin Andy from Curb and his supporting roles in Mad About You and Spin City from the 90's). But midway through the season, I cared as much about Ace as I did about Joey.

And then there's the Degenerate crew. Everyone seems to agree they were the heart of the series and I looked forward their scenes the most. Their back and forth banter, their volatile friendships, and their burgeoning horse business were fascinating to watch. There's a wordess scene from a recent episode where the four degenerates emerge from their motel rooms to watch the sunset. I absolutely loved that scene. It didn't serve any purpose in regards to moving their storyline forward, but it reinforced the bond they've nurtured since the beginning of the series. Moments like that, when you feel the emotions that the creators of the show are aiming for, made Luck great.

As for the circumstances of the cancellation, I am definitely of two minds. It's a sad thing when any animal dies, but the reality of using horses for racing is that sometimes they get overexerted and they die, which is what happened previously during the first season. The third death was an accident where the horse unexpectedly reared, flipped over, and hit its head. It's unfortunate. And I hate to use cliches, but "Shit DOES Happen" despite safety precautions.

So was it really out of pressure from PETA and the Humane Society to cancel the show that HBO pulled the plug? Or were sagging ratings to blame? I thought HBO didn't really care about ratings. They've been renewing the underrated Treme and I don't think a lot of people are watching that show. But from what I've read, Treme is very cheap to produce and Luck is a massive production with high salaries for those aforementioned Oscar winners.

It's safe to assume that it was a combination of factors that forced HBO to make this decision, but I don't agree with it. Luck was too good for that fate. Maybe they should have taken a few days to recover from the shock of the horse's death and come up with some compromise where there was less need to use horses. Commenters have rightly pointed out that the show was slowly moving away from the track anyway with some of the best racing sequences in the first few episodes. They could have found some creative ways to move forward with the second season with less reliance on the horses.

It's a tough thing to process when something you care about, as I've grown to care about Luck, is going to end with a proper goodbye. Deadwood ended with at least a semblance of finality in regards to the biggest storyline on the show (Hearst). And look at what great things Joss Whedon was able to do with the final episodes of Dollhouse because he knew it was ending. He accelerated storylines that were supposed to take seasons to unfold and it became an amazing show in its late 5-10 episodes. We could have had a similar situation here, with a shortened second season that allowed David Milch to bring some storylines to a close.

Finally, I'd like to address some of the many comments I've seen around the internet about how "bad" Luck is/was. People complaining about the dense storylines and "all they did was TALK!" Oh no, how offensive! Luck was a show that didn't have violence or sex. It had interesting dialogue and complex characters. I appreciated the detailed character work and slow, casual, pace. It was much more cinematic than what you're use to on TV.

I am very disappointed that Luck won't be coming back for a second season. But I can add it to the the list of amazing programming that HBO continues to deliver that didn't quite make it to their natural conclusion. Shows like Carnvale, Rome, and now, Luck.

One more thing. I've seen a lot of people saying their cancelling their HBO after news broke about the third horse death. I saw the same thing after the shocking season finale of Broadwalk Empire and the recent cancellation of Bored to Death. People, STOP LYING. I know you want to see what happens in the next season of True Blood. I know you want more sex and violence in one episode than Sopranos did in six seasons.

But that's the amazing thing about HBO. I can love a ridiculous show like True Blood as much as smart fantasy like Game of Thrones and a nuanced character study like Enlightened. There's room for everyone! Or so I thought.

(One of my favorite TV writers, Mo Ryan, just posted a great article about all this on HuffPost: here)

The End of LOST and What it Means for the Future

So this is what Christmas morning feels like.

LOST will begin its final season tonight with a 2-part episode titled, "LA X," and the excitement and anticipation is palpable, both on the world wide webs and pretty much everywhere. This type of frenzy for a TV show is not completely unprecedented, but it's been awhile since it seemed like the whole country, maybe the whole world, was so enamored by a TV show that its big reveal tonight has been debated and speculated about for almost a year.

But there's a big question looming over everything. When LOST is over, what happens next? Where do we all go from here? Some people are ready to give up TV all together, claiming "there will never be anything like LOST again..", which is very similar to all the people who canceled HBO after The Sopranos ended, claiming "That's it! They'll never be a show like that again!" I, of course, disagree! I believe that not only can the magic of Lost be reproduced again, but that there are shows on TV right now that have the potential to be similarly epic and exciting to the mass audience.

I acknowledge that LOST is special in very unique ways. LOST managed to appeal to a very wide range of audiences by siphoning out tiny bits of information slowly regarding a big mystery. That pulled in many viewers. LOST created some fascinating characters that clicked with a huge range of the population. Unlike the white-washed ensemble casts of the past, the LOST crew was pulled from all corners of the globe, its characters origanting from random countries like Korea, Iraq, and Australia. Yet if you had to pick a setting for the show, besides the all-important Island, it would be Los Angeles, the original destination for Flight 815, and where I believe most of the action will take place in this final season.

So what does the end of LOST mean? To me, I look at the end of a great series as an opening to introduce a lot of people to new and exciting series. Just last week, Caprica began on Syfy. Another series set in the world of Battlestar Galactica (but you don't need to have watched Galactica to understand), Caprica is a very adult take on science fiction, much like LOST. With incredible actors, nuanced writing, and gorgeous futuristic settings, the show has all the right ingredients to become a fascinating look at a society on the brink of collapse. Other series include two new one hour dramas on HBO premiering soon: Treme, from the creators The Wire, a show about musicians rebuilding their lives and their city in post-Katrina New Orleans, and Broadwalk Empire, starring Steve Buscemi as a gangster in 1920's Atlantic City. HBO is always fascinating in period pieces (see: Rome, Deadwood) and the latter show looks to follow the trend.

While I plan to enjoy every second of the final LOST season, I've got my eye to the future and what will be the next big thing that is the subject of endless dinner conversations and long, meandering, blog posts.

2010 and the New TV Season

Of course, I believe everyone should be watching what I watch. Intellectually, I know that's not possible, but I still like to believe it. For instance, you could have overheard me on Monday saying to one of my co-workers "So what did you think of the Big Love premiere? Awesome, huh?" Only to be met with a confused and slightly annoyed look.

But you'll indulge me (right?).

Let's start light, with the comedies. This past Monday brought the return of How I Met Your Mother. I'm fairly new to this show but am fascinated by it. It's the most interesting premise for a sitcom I've ever seen and the characters are all hilarious in their own right, all brought together with some truly original writing. This was How I Met's 100th episode and ended with a great musical number via the amazing Neil Patrick Harris. Although I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if the whole episode was a musical. (Musical number below)



Monday also brought a new Big Bang Theory, another show I promised myself I would watch consistently this season (while catching up on the early seasons). This is such a great nerd show. The casual references to everything from the Green Lantern, to Firefly, to Halo touches a sensitive part of my nerd heart. It's also got damn funny people in it with Sheldon, a cross between Urkel and Kramer, being the superstar.



Thursday returns with the laugh riot on NBC. The fledgling Community is still a little rocky in its first season. I think the show would improve dramatically if they stop trying to give every character a story every episode. Focus on the big funny and let the minor characters evolve slowly. Learn from The Office.


Six words: Will Arnett on Parks and Rec. (Almost) 'nuff said. Parks and Rec has been the funniest half hour on TV this season, which is all the more amazing after the lackluster first season. In an era where shows barely get a chance to grow, NBC gave this mid-season replacement a second shot and they did an incredible job of sharpening the comedic knife. (Image above from the severely underrated Blades of Glory.)

(FYI: No new Office this week. sad face.) But the ridiculously hilarious 30 Rock is all new with Agent 420... I mean, James Franco. 30 Rock has been consistently great this year (as always), I worry though, that some of the stories are getting repetitive. My solution? More Hornberger!

Now, onto more serious stuff...

This week will also see the return after a seemingly long hiatus of Fringe, a show that you should definitely be watching. This show, from the LOST creator and Star Trek writers, constantly surprises and intrigues. The arc for this season, involving an alternate universe and an army of shapeshifters from that universe who are waging war on us, is some of the most fascinating stuff I've ever seen on TV. The show has a lot of dark themes, with a lot of murder and death and disgusting inner body stuff, YET it's really witty and has truly great action sequences. The lead actors are wonderful, especially the Should Win An Emmy performance by John Noble as Walter Bishop.



Probably the biggest deal in TV right now and something I am very anxiously waiting for is the beginning of the last season of LOST. Anybody who watches the show knows it ended on a spectacular cliffhanger so I know we're all waiting to see what happens next, but before we go headfirst into the final chapter, I recommend (if there's time!) to watch some older episodes of the series to appreciate just how much planning and preparation the producers put in before this last piece of the story. I did a Rewatch over the summer (not the whole series, but most of it) and it was an amazing thing to behold.

Unlike a lot of other shows that seem to make it up as they go along (*cough*Battlestar Galactica*cough*), LOST really does progress in a very deliberate way, both from an overall story arc to a character level. All the time travel stuff from last season really does have roots in the early season stories and will be very important for the series climax (Can you say Egyptian?). And the characters arcs are novelesque in their scope, my favorites being Sawyer and Ben and what they did with them last season. February second can't come soon enough!



This month will see the beginning of the Next Big Thing (in my opinion) in Science Fiction TV: Caprica. Most of us have already seen the pilot episode (released onto DVD to coincide with the finale of Galactica) and I, personally, was blown away by the deep and dark story of this show. The actors are amazing, the premise is smart and complex, the settings are gorgeous, and the team behind it has a proven track record. All signs point to Awesome.

Here's a great scene from Episode 2 of Caprica (major spoilers!!) :



Lastly, the aforementioned Dollhouse has two more episodes left in the series. The revelations in last week's "Getting Closer" was not as over-the-top "WOW" as I would have hoped, but the overall episode was very strong. They are definitely in "End of Series" mode with characters randomly getting shot and alliances in flux. It should be very interesting to see how it all wraps up!

And don't think I'm not going to talk about Big Love, one of my favorite shows HBO has ever done (saying a lot). I'm going to wait till we get a few episodes in and then do a post devoted to just that show!

Tell Me You Love HBO

Last night, Tell Me You Love Me, HBO's newest one-hour-long drama premiered with much ado and almost as many commercials as that Justin Timberlake thing. I don't usually like to form an opinion on shows based on pilot episodes, but the internet is abuzz today with talk about the show so I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

From the outset, I knew a point of comparison for this show would be the brilliant Six Feet Under. Although centered around death, Six Feet Under was really about relationships, familial and sexual and marital. From the first episode of Six Feet Under on, we were thrown headfirst into a troubled family and all the crazy characters of that family, the Fishers, and all those around them.

After one episode of Tell Me You Love Me, I can't say I know much about any of these characters except that one couple is not having sex, one couple is trying to have a baby, and another couple is young and likes to have sex.

Okay, so I guess I'll talk about the sex now. Everyone else is. There's a word for the kind of sex we saw on display last night. It's called pornography. The producer and headwriter Cynthia Mort joked that she didn't think people would pay much attention to the sex (at least I hope she was joking). HBO has been showing nudity and sex scenes for years on their dramas, but this was long, drawn-out, choreographed sexual escapades.

In other words, gratuitous.

From the outside, one could say the enormous amount sex and the extreme display of flesh was a simple ratings ploy. If this was any other network, I would say they're right. But this is HBO and HBO, to me, has more credibility than... well, anybody and anything.

So the question remains, was all the sex trying to prove something? I kept watching the episode wondering if there was hidden meanings in all the bare asses and naked breasts.

Early in the episode, therapist Mary Coster looks at two pictures of naked bodies for an photo for a book she's writing about sex. A scene or two later, the young couple gets down and dirty and certain flashes evoke those same images. Okay, that's interesting. But by the fourth sex scene in single hour, I started to wonder if this wasn't just a way of shocking people.

Well, I'm not shocked. And frankly, I was kind of bored. Six Feet Under had a lot of sex, some of it graphic, but all of it served some purpose. Some overlaying story arc that needed to be shown during that sex scene, not just two straight people getting it on for fun.

Furthermore, trying to go beyond the obvious, the show seriously lacked a sense of humor. The premise of the show, couples dealing with relationship issues through therapy, is serious stuff. You must buoy that seriousness with some kind of comedy. A joke here or there or - shit, have someone fall on a rake, if that's all you can come up with.

All that being said, I will watch another episode, just because it's HBO and because I'm damn loyal. But there better be some serious improvement or I'm out.

Television to Traverse Hallways To

Last night's Big Love was toted by HBO as the most dramatic episode ever in the history of everything (!!!!), but it really wasn't.

Not to say it wasn't a great episode, it was. Every episode in this second season has been amazing, supremely interesting and full of exciting things: Barb had en existential crisis early in the season, Nicki has been excommunicated from her family, Margene had a brush of shocking truth with her mom and fell briefly in love with another woman. Bill's oldests, Ben and Sarah, have been going through their own relationship dramas; Ben reveling in sin and Sarah counting the days until she turns 18 and flees to college.

Bill, meanwhile, has been doing his reckless thing (again). Early in the season, he set out to discover who outed his family as polygamists (in last season's dramatic finale) and, failing that, decided to take out his frustration on Roman Grant and his Juniper Creek ruling council, the UEB. Bill pulled all kinds of hijanks to get a Hendrickson seat on the council, first for his brother and then for himself. All that amounted to getting tipped out that Roman was planning to buy a video-poker company called Weeber Gaming. Bill decided he wanted that company for himself.

Meanwhile, back in Juniper Creek, Bill's brother, Joey, spent some time in prison for a crime his wife committed (which set out Roman Grant's son, Albi, on a revenge pilgrimage that continues to threaten Bill and his family). Bill's mother and uncle have schemed to launder over a million dollars from a dying woman.

And then more bad guys showed up. The Greens. Apparently, a fearsome family of polygamists who had previously been at war with Roman and the UEB, then banished to Mexico, now returned to stake a claim, specifically on - you guessed it - Weeber Gaming. Hijinks have since ensued.

(Spoiler warning for last night's episode follows.)

So that brings us to the big episode, "Kingdom Come," which seeks to bring a lot of the disparate storylines of the season to a closing point so the writers can focus in a little more on individual character stories to finish off the season (sadly, only four episodes remain).

Does the episode succeed? Yes. Does the episode surprise? Not really.

Anytime shows - these days anyway - prophesies something "big" and "huge," it usually means a character getting shot. (Thanks Lost). Well, that's exactly what happened.

After a full hour of drama dealing with Ben's soul and in-fighting between the wives and Bill and an off-camera war between Roman Grant and the Greens, Roman is accosted on a streetcorner in front of his favorite diner and shot twice in the chest by two of Hollis Green's wives. It's pretty dramatic, sure, but it was also inevitable. As the season has progressed, Roman has become less and less the "big bad" and more a friendly character so without unteething the beast, he had to die. But the repercussions, especially in regards to Nicki's mental health, will be fascinating to watch.

As for the other storylines, the sex "thing" between Bill and Margene and Nicki was interesting and brought the show back to the first episodes (remember the Viagra?). But the most interesting storyline for me was Ben's. I had trouble buying all that "I'm not ruined!" type talk, I know they're religious and Mormon's, but any teenager growing up in today's world should not be that squeamish when it comes to sex. Don't they watch MTV? Seriously.

What was very interesting was seeing Ben prepare to live "The Principal" at sixteen, proposing marriage and pre-planning for a second wife. It drove home (to Bill and Barb especially) how absurd his life is and the wrongheadedness of some of his decisions.

Anyway, I think I prattled on enough. For anybody who doesn't watch this show, you can see from my rampant discussion of character motivations and subtleties that is a high quality show, extremely well-written, and well worth everyone's time.

John From Cincinnati

After watching six episodes of HBO's newest drama - most at least twice - I can safely, and finally, recommend this show as worthy of your precious time and attention. It struck me today, especially, reading about the show on HBO.com, in writer Steve Hawk's Inside the Episode, where he quotes creator David Milch, "The important point that I'm trying to make is that storytelling has nothing, whatsoever, to do with logic."

Well, obviously. JFC makes very little sense in a conventional way. A stranger wanders into the lives of a dysfunctional family of surfers in Imperial Beach, California and strange things start to happen. Sure, it's not the exquisite and complicated quilt of characters like Deadwood or even the gritty sad reality of NYC cops like NYPD Blue, but as the episodes pass in their slow and deliberate and often bewildering way, I have become as fascinated by the show as it seems the writers of it are. A few of the many great moments will linger in my memory for a long time, I'm sure, so passionate and powerful they are.

And the dialogue! Just like Deadwood, the dialogue is what drives this show. Even though Steve Hawk recommends we watch what the characters do and not what they say, it's what they say that is so weird and strange and interesting. The way the characters interact - in all their verbal violence - is what separates this show from anything else on TV.








For Deadwood fans, there's a particular joy from seeing characters we love from that show on this new Milch show. Particularly one of my favorite Deadwoodians, Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie), playing the heroin-dealin' Hawaiian Freddy. Also great to see Ellsworth, Jim Beaver, playing the pot-growin', spliff-rollin', Vietnam Joe. And, great (in a weird sort of uncomfortable way) to see Deadwood's Frances Wolcott (and first Deadwood role, Wild Bill-murdering Jack McCall) returned playing a nice guy (wow!), Dr. Smith. Also, the latest episode had an all-too-brief cameo from Deadwood's Trixie, Paula McCalomson.

To sum up, John From Cincinnati is not an easy show to like. I didn't recommend it to anyone for the first few weeks it was on, but now I feel confident that anyone who watches it and has the patience to deal with some confusion and some really weird characters, will be in for a very rewarding experience.

Galactica

Season 3 is over with much more to come. And this season, more than the previous ones, has left off with many many lingering questions and mysteries to ponder and debate until new episode start to air (I think they learned a lesson from LOST..)

Some points:

Chief Tyrol, Sam Anders, Col. Tigh, and Tori: Are they Cylons? Have they been programmed with some kind of trigger to make them Cylon sleeper agents (note: they were all on New Caprica, we know Col. Tigh was in prison there, is that where whatever happened to them took place?) Or has Cylon "skinjob" technology evolved so far that they can now create clones and replace people?

Baltar: What do you think of his acquittal? Is it justified? Does he deserve to die? Or, like Lee pointed it, should he be forgiven like the rest of the God-forsaken survivors of the colonies? And who were those religious people he was with at the end of the episode, are they in way connected to the Sagitarians or Tom Zarek?

President Roslyn: The cancer's back, now what? Taking Kamala again seems to allow her to see visions she wasn't able to when she was "sober." Will she take another blood transfusion from Hara or will she continue to let the cancer go so she can use her visions to guide the fleet to Earth?

Further, what was up with those visions of Caprica Six, Athena, and Rosyln in the Kobol Opera House? What's the significance of their connection with Hara?

Romo Lapkin (Baltar's lawyer): Will we ever see him again? (I hope so.) And what was that "other business" he had to deal with?

Starbuck: WTF? The episode when she "died" was one of the most maligned hours of Galactica history. Fans were in a tizzy, pissed about her death, the way it was handled, everything. I thought the episode, "Maelstorm," was boring and the episode when poor Kat died was so much more dramatic. But now she's back and been to Earth. Again, WTF?

Pegasus: Do you miss it as much as I do?

New Caprica: A great storyline that has had widespread repercussions. Do you think we'll get another flashback episode on that planet?

What caused the fleet-wide power failure when they reached the Nebula? And how did the Cylons beat them to it?

I'll post more when I think of them!