A Run of Luck

I won't be getting to tonight's Valentine's Day episode of Glee, on account of actual Valentine's plans. But for those looking for some sort of television review tonight, I cooked this up in advance.

I picked up HBO a few weeks ago so that I could check out the latest from creator David Milch, Luck. I knew nothing of the show in advance, other than that it dealt with horses somehow, and starred Dustin Hoffman. And, of course, that most important detail, David Milch's name. He earned such goodwill from me with his brilliant writing on Deadwood that I'd be willing to give just about anything from him a try, no questions asked.

Three episodes of Luck have aired now, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. By this point in Deadwood's run, I already loved it, though I recognize that as an unreasonable standard to hold a writer to. But Luck so far has displayed signs of the same "recipe" that made Deadwood.

Many disparate plots are in play. A career criminal kingpin is trying to put things back together after a prison stint. A group of "railbirds" hits big betting on horses, and their relationship begins to fracture in the aftermath. A washed up trainer is trying to secretly champion a new horse to the big time. The connections are casual at best, but there seems to be some inevitable intersection on the horizon.

The dialogue is dense and delicious. The entire show is filled with the terminology of horses and gambling, and if you don't understand it all (I admit, I don't), you just have to sink or swim. By osmosis, you'll eventually learn to keep up. Very Deadwood.

But so far, the characters still have some catching up to do. There aren't many sympathetic characters to get behind, and while it's true that some of Deadwood's best characters were not what anyone would consider "good guys," none of Luck's "villains" have the pop of a Swearingen or Tolliver.

But maybe they'll get there.

I was looking for enough pull to justify staying with Luck after the required month for which I have to keep HBO, and as of right now, I think Luck is going to pass that test. (Of course, drop it or no, I'd be picking up HBO again come April 1st, for the second season premiere of Game of Thrones.) I doubt I'll be posting about the weekly ins and outs of Luck, but you might look for an update or two from me as the season unspools.