Luck

HBO looked to have another hit on its hands with Luck, created by David Milch, who also created Deadwood, among other shows, and backed by Michael Mann, who served as executive producer and director of the pilot, and star Dustin Hoffman, in his first foray into television. The show was well-reviewed and watched, and was renewed for a second season.

But the show was abruptly cancelled before its first season was even over. Three horses died during the filming of the series, which is set a race track, and protests by PETA and other groups must have hit the mark.

I just finished watching that first and last season, and it's too bad they couldn't do it without horses dying, because it was terrific. The show was much more cerebral than other HBO shows, with limited sex and violence. It was a terrific snapshot of humanity as it passes through the day at Santa Anita race track.

The story basically has three threads, each centered around a certain horse. Hoffman plays "Ace" Bernstein, a gambler and underworld figure who has just been released from prison. He served a term covering up for his grandson on a drug charge, and was set up by rivals. He still has plenty of money, and plots revenge, starting by taking over the track and installing casino gambling. He has also purchased an Irish race horse, though because he is a felon he can't actually own it, so his driver and factotum (Dennis Farina) is the owner of record.

Another storyline features Nick Nolte as an old-time trainer who has the horse of a lifetime on his hands. He is a crotchety but gold-hearted man, and treats everyone kindly, except when crossed. He carefully nurtures the horse, and struggles to decide who will be the jockey--the experienced pro (Gary Stevens, a former jockey) or Kerry Condon, a young Irish girl.

Finally, with a lot of comic relief, are four "degenerate" gamblers who win a large jackpot and buy a horse together. They are a motley crew, and decide to live in side by side motel rooms to keep each other in sight. They hire Turo Escalante (John Ortiz) as their trainer--he is a gruff man who also trains Hoffman's horse, and is secretly the lover of the track's veterinarian (Jill Hennessy).

Over the course of the show, the three threads don't cross, so we wait for that to happen. In the meantime, the characters are sharply etched, and we get the whole rack track experience, from grooms to jockeys to trainers to owners. Other characters include Richard Kind as an agent of jockeys (of course they need agents, but it never occurred to me that such a profession existed) and a "bug" (a rookie jockey), Tom Payne, who struggles to keep his weight down. They all gather at the local watering hole, talking in race track slang in a sort of Damon Runyon-ish fashion.

Hoffman plays a different sort of role for him. He's a buttoned-down man, complaining about the size of his shirt collars and the thickness of his windbreaker. He's steely-eyed and measured, but given to explosions of rage. He becomes sweet on a woman running a charity for horses (Joan Allen), but has forsworn sexual relationships at his age. His moves against his rivals, the foremost being Michael Gambon, are like chess moves. He trusts only Farina, who knows how to be a bodyguard but has a kind of naivete about other aspects of life. Their quiet conversations end each episode.

I think my favorite part of the show was the gamblers. The most enjoyable character is played by Kevin Dunn. He's Marcus, a man restricted to a wheelchair and forced to carry an oxygen tank around because of a heart disease. He oozes bitterness out of every pore, and most of his lines are sarcastic insults, but it's a testament to the acting that a viewer can see the decent guy way underneath. The other gamblers are Jason Gedrick, who likes to take risks at the poker table, the would-be smoothie Ian Hart, and Richie Coster as Renz, the good guy who's always looking out for others. I was astonished to see in the extras that Coster is a British actor (so is Hart, but I knew that).

The horse race stuff is very well done. Of course, the season ends with Hoffman and Nolte's horse in the big race, and it's not a surprise that it's a photo finish, but it is excitingly handled (although, and this is the usual in horse racing movies, races don't last as long in real life as they do in the movies). Since the show was not renewed, there are lose ends that only Milch can answer. But if it saves horses lives, so be it.