"Luck" follows a bunch of people who hang around at a race track - degenerate gamblers, jockeys, agents and the quasi-criminal owners of the horses themselves. I think there's a lot of potential here, it's a beautiful setting that's rife with natural drama. Of course Dustin Hoffman is the big name among the cast but I could see some of the others, especially Dennis Farina as Hoffman's driver and seemingly naive but enthusiastic assistant, being memorable in their roles.
I worry that the characters don't have enough to do with each other to sustain a series, similar to the gambling-themed "Tilt" a while back, which was awful. The degenerate gamblers don't necessarily interact at all with the jockeys and owners, or if they do it's just a fleeting thing, I'd think. I hope it's not just a long series of "Oh hey we're going to have a caper with those random guys we always have capers with" stories, that would seem contrived and would be easy to do if the writers have to keep coming up for stuff for unrelated characters to do together.
That aside, Luck seems promising enough. There's all kinds of intrigue these guys could get into, and the political angle could be great. On the whole I'm glad that "Luck" has been added to the stable (sorry about that) of mature cable dramas.
I worry that the characters don't have enough to do with each other to sustain a series, similar to the gambling-themed "Tilt" a while back, which was awful. The degenerate gamblers don't necessarily interact at all with the jockeys and owners, or if they do it's just a fleeting thing, I'd think. I hope it's not just a long series of "Oh hey we're going to have a caper with those random guys we always have capers with" stories, that would seem contrived and would be easy to do if the writers have to keep coming up for stuff for unrelated characters to do together.
That aside, Luck seems promising enough. There's all kinds of intrigue these guys could get into, and the political angle could be great. On the whole I'm glad that "Luck" has been added to the stable (sorry about that) of mature cable dramas.