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Luck Review (When your Luck runs out)
On March 14th, following the death of a third horse in the filming of the HBO drama Luck, it was announced that the show would not continue. Production had begun on a second season at Santa Anita racetrack and one episode was completed on what was to be a 10 episode season. Speculation immediately focused on whether the series’ relatively low ratings had resulted in HBO pulling the plug quickly in response to the controversy. At the time of the cancellation the last episode had premiered to less than half a million viewers, far behind the audiences for recent HBO series such as Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. Additionally ratings were weak in relation to the HBO programming that followed Luck (Eastbound & Down) as well as Showtime’s Sunday night lineup.
For a production blessed with such a sterling pedigree Luck seemed snake bitten from the start. Conceived by David Milch and produced in concert with David Mann, Luck starred Dustin Hoffman in rare television role and featured a heavyweight cast that included Nick Nolte, Jill Hennesy, Dennis Farina, and Joan Allen. It was a seeming labor of love for Milch who received his first exposure to track life at New York’s Saratoga racetrack and has been a fixture on the national racing stage as a horse owner for decades.
While recent horse themed movies such as Seabiscuit, War Horse and Secretariat had managed to achieve the familiar No Animals Were Harmed disclaimer, working with horses in a production environment always carries danger for the animals involved. If one spends any amount of time in the morning at a major racetrack watching horses train to race, you will be presented with the both the power and fragility of these animals. It is ironic that in a series that sought to reflect the emotions that horses stir in human beings, it is precisely these emotions that produced the strong reaction to the loss of three horses during filming.
Like the HBO drama Deadwood before it, those who found themselves captured by Luck will be left without a sense of completion. In retrospect Luck was unique in the way it sought to present horse racing, exhibiting both the beauty and despair you find at the racetrack. As such it was probably different than any previous look at the sport; certainly a contrast to recent big budget treatments of the sport’s major stars.
In interviews, actor Richard Kind who plays the jockey agent Joey Rathburn, has compared the racetrack to the PBS series Upstairs/Downtairs in the vast strata of social classes that is represented. You find the wealthiest people in the country in the clubhouse while on the backstretch many workers struggle to make their way, toiling intensely seven days a week. The bettors themselves run the spectrum from high rollers to people picking up discarded tickets off the floor in the effort to raise the funds to make a few bets.
If Let It Ride (1989) covered the degenerate side of racing with a comic touch, Luck delves deeper into the track’s dark side. Anyone who has studied the lives of lottery winners realizes that in some cases what looks like good fortune often conceals a crueler fate. The quartet of longshots who win a $2.7 million Pick Six in the opening episode of the series seem at the very least an even money shot to end up in worse shape than they started. There is Jerry, the handicapping brains of the outfit, played by Jason Gedrick, who usually leaks money at the poker tables quicker than he can earn it at the track. As if to emphasize his transient relationship with money, he improbably carries his share of the score around with him in the trunk of his car. In fact the sheer amount of time all these guys spend lugging around large amounts of money in sacks seems to begging for a negative random life event.
Renzo, played by Ritchie Coster affecting an American accent, is the quintessential racetrack loser. In the first episode he is seen getting a payday loan on his disability payment to come up with his betting contribution. It is Renzo who incorporates the equally hapless Lonnie (Ian Hart) whose bankroll from an insurance scam allows the team to proceed with their bet. For much of the series the pair provides comic relief as it is obvious the only contribution they brought to the group was monetary.
The group’s leader Marcus (Kevin Dunn), confined to a motorized wheelchair and possibly also using a disability pension to finance his forays in handicapping, is the kind of guy who could depress Tony Robbins. Marcus’ perennial pessimistic outlook and rampant paranoia ensure that he can turn even winning a giant Pick 6 into a negative experience.
Based out of a cheap hotel, this group’s Pick 6 good fortune as a plot device allows the pieces of Luck to fit together as the group purchases a horse with some of their winnings. The trainer of that horse and the center of the intersecting plots is trainer Turo Escalante, said to be patterned on Southern California conditioner Julio Canani. As performed by John Ortiz he seems to have all the angles covered, adept at playing the ignorance of those who have underestimated him to his own advantage. As talented with his bankroll as preparing horses, Escalante rarely misses a chance to cash in. Ortiz presents Escalente as a multi layered character, his connection to Dustin Hoffman’s Ace Bernstein made clear in their very first meeting as Bernstein alludes to the trainer’s beginnings as a teenager selling carrots.
If Luck is presented in much the same way a horse race develops, with satellite plots prominent in the early stages, giving way to the main Ace Bernstein/Stakes race story lines in the finale, it is the Ortiz character that carries much of the load in the series. Ortiz gives us an insight to the frustration/exhilaration roller coaster that is the life of a trainer.
Turo Escalante’s training counterpoint in the series major race is Nick Nolte’s Walter Smith. Playing almost ten years older than his 71 years, Nolte’s storyline with a promising son of Delphi is inspired by the real life story of Alydar. Alydar, who valiantly battled Triple Crown winner Affirmed during the racing season of 1978 died in a paddock accident in November of 1990. A decade later major news outlets would report the story that Alydar may have been killed as part of an insurance scam in a desperate attempt to prevent the foreclosure of Calumet Farm. This and a disputed ownership angle add some drama to the potential superstar horse story line.
The show features some familiar faces from the world of horse racing including current rider Chantal Sutherland in a small part and retired Hall Of Famer Gary Stevens in a major one. Stevens gets the best part of his career as Ronnie Jenkins, a rider who has visited the top echelons of the game and struggles with substance abuse. As the series progresses the promise of riding the Nolte character’s potential superstar balanced against the rider’s personal battle places Jenkins at a crossroads.
Luck seems to want to introduce us to every aspect of the world of racing and thus covers a lot of ground. Whether it is filling out a claim form or throwing up to make weight, viewers can’t say they didn’t learn anything. As such, the series rider contingent includes Rosie (Kerry Condon) an exercise rider making the most of an unexpected opportunity and her love interest the apprentice Leon (Tom Payne) whose problems with weight foreshadow a short career.
Locating the series with the beautiful Santa Anita racetrack as a backdrop accentuates the visual appeal of the racetrack. Set against the majestic San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Anita is a venue made for high definition television. Thus the track itself becomes an appealing central character, often contrasting with the circumstances of the intermingling stories.
The main Ace Bernstein revenge story featuring Dustin Hoffman is slow out of the gate. There is also a separate possible love interest in Joan Allen, a plot line that focuses at least initially on the positive effect horses have on people more than on the human relationship. The confrontation between Michael Gambon’s villain and Ace is often overshadowed by the other stories in this piece, but the tension rises considerably in the last couple episodes. Indeed it is the final episode where this story line takes control, conflict rises considerably for the characters involved, and Hoffman and Farina get a chance to shine. One could easily see the possibilities a second season would bring.
For the horse racing community the cancellation of Luck comes as a painful blow. In the two years leading up to the series there was an excitement in the fact that Santa Anita and the sport in general were being showcased. The Daily Racing Form devoted a large amount of coverage to the series and tracked each episode. The writers John Perrotta, Jay Hovdey, and Bill Barich were all very familiar to those who follow the sport. Racing related media outlets devoted large blocks of time to interviewing series participants. It was reported there was a buzz on the Santa Anita backstretch when the production was at the track. The excitement around the series has given away to a sense of disillusionment in the wake of its demise.
An initial criticism of the series was that it would be difficult for viewers to pick up on the idiosyncrasies of the horse racing world. As such, it was interesting how many sources were available online for viewers to pick up on anything they missed. The aforementioned Daily Racing Form, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times were foremost among outlets offering detailed recaps of episodes. Perhaps the best of these was the Los Angeles Times Show tracker, available at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/luck/. It was penned by Ted McClelland, author of the well-received Horseplayers: Life at the Track (2005). The show tracker offers a nice recap of the various plots with explanations for viewers who haven’t spent their lives reading Past Performances.
In the end Luck will be remembered for its ambitiousness, more than the ratings it generated. Racetrackers are a stoic bunch used to seeing morning’s promise evaporate in the cold reality of the afternoon. The subject of horse welfare was a key part of the Dustin Hoffman/Joan Allen plot and will continue to be an issue in the racing industry. All that is left is to gain some understanding of the events that transpired and move on.
Luck is currently available at HBO On Demand as well as the streaming service HBO Go. It is also scheduled for DVD release.
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