That's good to hear. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a totally skewed (in a good way) version of the sport. But I just worry about certain sterotypes that surround the sport being re-enforced x 100.

Thanks so much! A great episode!

Paul

TV/Film Critics rather unanimous in their positive reviews of 'Luck'.. The only people that have negative things to say are predictably people in racing.. :rolleyes:

Entertainment Weekly

In all fairness most HBO series get good reviews. Boardwalk Empire has been borderline ridiculous this year and by reading reviews you would think it's the greatest show of all time.

Watched it last night. Maybe its me but I can not for the life of me how a show showing a horse breakdown, beyond degenerate gamblers at a track with maybe 20 other fans, a mumbling Juan Carlos Guerreo wannabe putting one over and mobbed up owner is going to attract any fans to the sport. Let's just hope we don't lose any.

Was the Sopranos really about he Mafia.. You think real made guys didnt laugh at the dialog. It's all just a back drop for a soap opera that takes you away from reality for 50 minutes.

Come on Freddy, you can't be serious about comparing the mafia and horse racing. The mafia didn't care about the perception, everyone knows that they weren't chiorboys. They also didn't own/run a sport that is struggling to survive. Many people already have a negative vison of the sport and even though it's just entertainment, I believe some people can't seperate that from the real truth (Oh wait some of that stuff on the show is spot on accurate).

Does anyone remember a show on ESPN called playmakers? It was a series about a fictional football team playing in a pro league. It pretty much covered everything, from behind the scenes at practices, in the GM's office, to drugs on and off the field. Apparently the NFL wasn't to keen on the show, the rumors were that ESPN cancelled it because if they didn't, ESPN would lose all chance from showing NFL games on the network. But the point is, that show was entertainment as well, but it certainly made you think twice about what really goes on behind the scenes.

Obviously the NFL is a bit stronger that racing :rolleyes:, but I really think that anything negative in the show impact the sport in a negative way.

It will have zero effect on real racing regardless if it the geatest hit in HBO history or the worst flop ever. You think my girlfriend gives a darn about betting on a horse race? She has been to the Derby 4 times BC 3 and a few Belmonts. She could care less about racing unless I tell her we are going and then its all about what shoes she needs to buy with whatever new hat and dress. Not to mention were we are staying and what places are we going to dinner. You think the public doesnt know horses breakdown. geez math they unfortunately have seen the best on the biggest days breakdown for years now?

Then although you completely missed my point which was contraian to those that hoped it would draw more fans, we come to an agreement on the result. The show basically hit on EVERY negative sterotype and situation involved with the sport. What's next a cameo by Dick Dutrow? Funny how people bash the ESPN guy for his failed attemt humor but applaud Luck who protrayed every negative sterotype associated with the sport.

Hell she's probably thinking about getting a ring on her finger and sending you to the glue factory.

So would showing sappy unrealistic nonsense help the industry out? How many people could even sit through Secretariat without thinking there has to be a better way to spend 90 minutes? Did Racing Stripes really point the industry in the right direction?

Freddy is his own way has it right. It's a character driven drama with the backdrop at the track. The Sopranos made the mafia seem cool. Maybe this show can do the same thing. If not, no one goes anyway.

The show needs to prepare the viewer for how many times they're going to have to pay before they can get to their seats at a CDI track.

I have to admit Freddy, it's not even the breakdowns. Now granted it's only one episode and I have no idea what's going to be covered. But the thing that concerns me the most is the whole angle/storyline regarding the trainers. We have all been there, "how did that horse improve/end up winning", "Are you kidding me, a horse that's coming off a 4 year layoff wins for fun" "This game is impossible, I'm through with it" and so on. Obviously we are the die hards and love the game too much to actually quit betting, besides we usually factor those angles into our capping anyway. So I worry that fringe players or people who might be interested in the sport might see things like the put-over scene (potential drugs in the future?) and realize that betting on horses is probably proposition. Let alone other factors, such as Takeout, surfaces, biases, pinhead jockeys etc.............. The sport needs bettors to survive and although they did plant a good seed with the whole pick 6 storyline, I have a feeling that the whole shady trainer angle will negate any of the positives that they might have created.

Really winning 2 mil sux? Dutrow character would be an amazing story. Sleeping in a barn broke, wild gambler, starts training better horses etc. Dutrows real story would be incredible entertain now that you mention it

Big cast big money behind it, very strong producers, not some sh!!tty espn production give it time

Well, aside from the debate as to whether it can possibly bring fans to the track (I highly doubt that it will affect attendance either way, regardless) is the discussion around the entire basis of the first episode - as jms62 points out-

• Opening scene is of a criminal getting out of prison and immediately inquiring about his horse, which felons can't own apparently, and his scheme to hide the ownership so he doesn't get caught.
  
• A trainers sandbagging his charge to run its price up - the only thing missing from that scene was the vet juicing the horse before the race
  
• Degenerate gamblers, not horseplayers, but honest-to-goodness Degenerates, condescendingly monikered as "Railbirds" who are seemingly the only ones interested in what is happening that particular day
  
• Of course the obligatory breakdown, replete with exaggerated snapping sound effects and blood spraying out.

So it goes... I couldn't care less who does or doesn't watch this - What I can say for a complete certainty is that the breakdown scene turned off every single non-horse racing person I know that watched it, from tuning in again to it. And again, I couldn't care less.

In the end, the pilot did nothing to hold interest, develop any sort of connection to any of the characters, because almost all of the dialogue was idiotic, over simplified prattle played by over emoted character actors trying desperately to make their characters known through a horrific script.

It was terrifyingly reminiscent of the pilot for "John from Cincinnati".

I hope is gets better, will watch, but sorry I for one thought it was a sub-par effort for HBO.

I disagree with this. I thought that I got a good feel for the Nick Nolte character, Maybe he finally has "The Horse" in his barn. I'm not sure if non racing fans understand the magnitude of that. I find the railbirds funny, but I kind of wish that they didn't cash in so early in to the show. They could have set that up a little better, but I think they are interesting. God only knows the direction they go in with the shady trainer. I did think the Hoffman/Farina characters were non-events, but since they are the headliners they will obviously develop in future episodes. The bug was also a non event if you ask me.

There is no mafia.

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, what was portrayed in the show is kind of an accurate depiction of the racetrack and racetrack people.

Degenerate gamblers using their checks to play races is a reality. Anyone who has ever stepped foot in an OTB knows this truth. Horses break down. It's unfortunate, but it happens. Trainers put over horses almost daily.

We all know this happens, so why are we so bothered when this is shown? If the people that talk to horses facebook pages were turned off...who cares? They were already turned off anyway, so it was only a matter of time. They can have Racing Stripes and the people living in reality can have this show.

:tro: