“Lucky”
Tomorrow night at 10 on FX ½
I’LL say one thing: “Lucky” has got a good shot at making it. But not as good a shot as it should have if it was just a litttttle better.
The premise: a professional-verging-on-degenerate gambler named Lucky Linkletter (John Corbett) spends his life in Vegas alternating gambling and quitting, winning and losing it all.
Lucky has two trusty sidekicks hustler/losers Vinny Sticcarelli (Billy Gardell) and Buddy “Mutha” LeGendre (Craig Robinson), who provide more than their share of comic relief.
But then again everyone does – even though it’s not all fun and games here.
Vinny and Mutha are scammers more than gamblers and spend endless hours eating at a diner and cooking up scams which are usually as successful as the ones cooked up by Ralph Kramden.
Also in the mix are sometime love interest/Gambler’s Anonymous pal, Theresa (Ever Carradine), who can’t quit gambling anymore than Lucky can; Danny (Kevin Breznahan), a crackhead and uncontrollable dresser; Victor (Seymour Cassell), a gambling pal who smokes through his tracheotomy; Joey Legs (Dan Hedaya), a loan shark with a short fuse; and Amy (Andrea Roth), a scammer who knows more ways around Vegas than a cab driver.
So, with a premise like that – what can be wrong?
Nothing really, but for some reason, it’s just not as good as it could be. It’s crisp and often funny, but there’s a certain inside Vegas know-how and lowdown that’s missing.
I would have preferred to see more seat-of-the pants poker hands.
For example, Lucky says he’s playing Texas Hold ‘Em in one episode, but he may as well be playing Old Maid for all the moves we get to see played out.
Also, they have Lucky talk to himself in the mirror in each episode, an incredibly grating touch that serves no real purpose.
On the other hand, the cast is out-of-control good. Corbett is always great, but Gardell, Robinson, Carradine, Breznahan, Cassell, Hedaya and Roth couldn’t be better. In fact, the casting is perfection and the actors are too.
However much you may wish to see more of the gambling action, I promise you by Episode Four, you will be laughing out loud – although the show swings from tragic to hilarious as easily as Vinny and Mutha switch scams. But Episode Four is one of the better episodes of any TV series this season.
In it, Lucky decides to go straight – again – and becomes a meat salesman. As in steaks, chops, ribs, baloney.
What’s not to love – unless you happen to be a vegetarian – which his new girlfriend just happens to be.
I predict this series will be a mega-cult favorite, with fans who’ll make “Farscape” fanatics look like a calm, unassuming bunch.