LUCK TEASER: HBO, MONEY, SEX, GAMBLING, AND HORSIES

Looks great. More Michael Mann is always welcome.

Anyone else think that Hoffman looks like Tom Cruise in COLLATERAL?

Hell, yes.   Looks great.  Horsies!

 

How is it that Nolte looks about 15 years older than Hoffman now?

Hard living. And it sounds like his throat is grinding rocks.

Trunk shot is pure Mann.

 

So ready to see this. Too many great parts not to want to see it.

 

Also, kind of glad to go into this knowing so little right now.

Early showing of the pilot on December 11th.

That thing is sizzling. I couldn't give two shits for horse racing or gambling but this little vid makes me want to eat it all up.

Anybody see the pilot last night?

I watched it, and I gotta say, it didn't really grab me.  The season preview at the end promises some good stuff, but I found the pilot kind of limp and not very compelling.   

I would have thought that Mann's direction and the performances, especially Nolte and Dennis Ferina who were apparently great would be enough. But PUBLIC ENEMIES proved you need a good script as well, though I still like that movie.

I heard it has little to no exposition and just dropped you in the world of racing. That approach usually works for me.

I thought it was fantastic, though I'm a sucker for Milch. Thought he put together a great set of characters, and the racing was there -- amazingly shot, just ridiculous, wonder if they'll be able to keep that up -- for whenever the exposition started to get too heavy. Cast looks great. What Nolte's story is going to be, other than training Awesome Horse (forgot its name), I can't tell yet, but Hoffman and Farina were a great pairing. And

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Can't wait for the season to start, I'm more looking forward to this than I was Boardwalk Empire. Fingers crossed it continues to live up.

 

As for being dropped into the dying world of horse racing, Vulture dropped a handy guide to the pilot (spoilers, of course).

Not quite as Manntastic as I had hoped, but there was more than enough on display to keep watching when it really gets going. Especially since Gambon and Jürgen are gonna get involved.

 

Probably not the best series to do a pilot preview for.

Especially directly after a season finale on the caliber of Boardwalk Empire's. People still assimilating and affected by all that went down in BE are going to find it hard to concentrate on or care about new, strange people in a typical Milch "chapter one of a long-view series" pilot set in a jargon-heavy niche lifestyle, no matter how well, shot, cut, or acted. Well, I had to rewind the first 10 minutes or so, anyway, so maybe just me, then.

Gambon is probably what will keep me coming back, even though I was underwhelmed.