Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte join 'Luck' cast
 

Dustin Hoffman in lead role as 'Ace' Bernstein.. Dennis Farina signed on last week as Bernstein's sidekick/chauffeur. Trades don't seem to have it yet but Nick Nolte will join the cast as well. Shooting starts in about a month.

Might have to get HBO again. That's how they got me before: "Rome" was awesome.

Ahhh.... Rome. I loved that show. First season was better than the second, but I loved both.

Bump. The pilot is coming on HBO in about 2 minutes.

Uh oh.... :(

I only watched the first 10-15 minutes during halftime and I wasn't very impressed. I kind of got that same uh oh vibe when I saw that the one guy put his disabilty check up for use on their pick 6 ticket. I'll watch the full episode tomorrow.

I really enjoyed it.

I thought it was lots of fun.

What exactly are people expecting?

I think people are gonna bitch about it but it was typical HBO. Bunch of sub plots that end up tying together at end of season. My only issue is the snapping of the leg, they could have at least waited till the 3rd episode for that.

Agree on the subplots part. I know people are going to focus on the leg snapping but I think and I'm just guessing that they put that in to just get it out of the way. I thought it was handled well with the jock being there with the horse and showing how shaken up he was walking back.

How about Chantal? Move over Meryl Streep :rolleyes:.

Typical HBO...yes, but in my opinion, that's a good thing.

Overall, enjoyable...and also, the first time I feel like the science of ticket structure in horse racing ever made it to mainstream. It was caveman, but at least there was logic and it wasn't babied into the script. I saw that as a breakthrough.

In the end, I most want to hear about what non-racing people have to say

I watched it with three girls and another dude, who is primarily a sports gambler. My girlfriend had a small clue, my sister was sleeping, and the other girl had questions about the 'front', the IRS, and some of the trainer speak, which I thought was great. The dude had questions about if they actually did that in the mornings and the p6

I think the characters were very well thought out and interesting, which is what non racing people will grab onto, the sunday 9pm cst slot is pretty much unbelievable though, you cant get better exposure then that imo

Some mainstream reaction..

Luck, Ep. 1.01: “Pilot” admirably faces down expectations
by Simon Howell in Spotlight, TV

More than most series – and even more than most HBO series – Luck is facing down a hell of a set of expectations. Most crucially of all, Luck centers around a millieu that evokes the grimy hopefulness of Deadwood‘s lawless camp: the world of horse racing. It’s safe to say expetations may be unreasonable. As it turns out, Luck‘s pilot is precisely the sum of those aforementioned parts – and for now, that’s likely good enough. (Those are some pretty strong parts, after all.)

Maurenn Ryan 'gets it' right away..

'Luck': Dustin Hoffman And David Milch Debut Their New HBO Drama
By Maureen Ryan, Huffington Post

It doesn't officially premiere until Jan. 29, but the pilot for 'Luck,' David Milch's new drama, debuted Sunday on HBO, and if you caught it, I'm betting it made you want to go to the racetrack.

Watching the first hour of a Milch drama on its own is a strange experience; the best way to experience his shows -- especially the all-time great drama 'Deadwood' -- is to marinate in his world, to let several episodes wash over you and ensnare you with their tales of compromised, corrupt people who nevertheless can't stop hoping for a big payday, a big score, some kind favorable outcome or judgment. What gives me hope about 'Luck' is that its intensity and trajectories were apparent from the start, even when I wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Love the time slot especially since football will be over when it starts up.

I loved it.. How great was the line "that horse run really really good"? I laughed hard. Poor girlfriend was still shook up that Jimmy was dead in Broadwalk. We are in for a lot of fun.

I agree with this - I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but found it difficult for a non-racing fan to "get" or more importantly stay interested in.


Most importantly, for all the sub-plots, it really could have ended last night with no real interest in dragging the viewer back. Pretty obvious that the P6 guys will find nothing but trouble, Dustin Hoffman's character is uninteresting and really no one cares about him or his horse that he's not allowed to own, Richard Kind's character as a jock's agent is over-the-top ridiculous, and the whole thing was kind of forced.

All of the technical inaccuracies aside, (2 panned backstretch shots with the tote board in the background, and no way that P6 ticket was 845.00 (an impossibility by the way) - I recall seeing at least 2 legs where they were 4 deep and a all button selection in the last (8 horses - more like 2.5-3K)

I'll watch, I hope it gets better, but if it was about anything other than horse racing, I doubt I'd tune in again.

Dammit Freddie! How bout a spoiler alert?

I think the overall function of getting people all excited about a big jackpot score is key, and glad it started out there instead of one-off win bets.

Last time I took people who had no background in the sport to the track was in Hong Kong, where there was a US$12 million carryover in what is, essentially, a triple-trifecta (as opposed to a twin-tri). You can play it many different ways, and you don't earn exchanges, but we were alive for a reduced chunk of the pot going into the last leg and the two newbies with me were stoked, and both have gone back to the track since. We lost, but the consolation we got back was more than the bet, so they felt like they won.

Big jackpots stoke the fires of the youth that are used to such scores through Vegas, poker, etc...from the betting angle of the game, I'm glad they started there.

Thanks dude.. I Dvr'd it.