‘Luck’ – ‘Pilot’: My best day ever so far, by Jerry

“Luck” had its official debut tonight, but of course it was an episode that HBO had already aired as a sneak preview back in December, and which I wrote about at the time. Since then, I’ve seen all 9 first season episodes – and, as you can see in my review, I really liked them – and also talked a bit about the show with David Milch and Michael Mann.

So on the subject of the first episode, I think I’m all written out at this point. I’ll be doing more extensive weekly write-ups for the remaining 8 – and, yes, I’m aware that HBO Go will be carrying the second episode immediately, but we’re not going to discuss it until after it airs on HBO itself next Sunday – but for now I just want to get the discussion rolling, both for those of you seeing the show for the first time and any of you who may have watched it again after seeing it in December. The gist of the discussion back then was that only the real horseracing fans could follow everything about the Pick Six and certain other matters; if you watched it a second time, was it easier to make sense of all that? How did everyone feel about so much of the pilot being devoted not to Dustin Hoffman or Nick Nolte, but the four railbirds led by Jason Gedrick and Kevin Dunn? How did you react to what happened to that one horse in the day’s final race? And how much did anyone understand (on first or second viewing) from John Ortiz as paranoid, hustling trainer Turo Escalante?

(For those who still feel confused, Vulture’s Q&A might help.)

Have at it, and I’ll be doing the full-length episode review thing starting a week from tonight.

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