NOT HORSING AROUND: Dennis Quaid stars as a 1960s-era Las Vegas sheriff in “Vegas,” which premieres tomorrow night at 10 on CBS. (
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If I were the guy setting the odds in Vegas I’d give “Vegas” CBS’ new drama, a 50-50 shot to shoot right to the middle.
The series with a pedigree so impeccable it could be entered into Westminster, is another one of those 1960s-era dramas that mostly fail.
In unimaginative attempts to make “Mad Men” magic, there was “Pan Am” (good pilot, terrible series), “The Playboy Club” (horrible beyond belief) and the still living “Magic City” (which should be better than it is).
The problem — besides preposterously bad writing — with all of those shows was the attempt to ape “Mad Men’s” authenticity. They never could.
Now, along comes “Vegas,” executive produced by the great Nick Pileggi whose “Goodfellas” was, under the direction of Martin Scorsese, so precise that the attention to detail was as riveting as the great story.
“Vegas” doesn’t fully deliver either. The series focuses on real-life reluctant 1960s Las Vegas sheriff, Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid), and fake Italian-American mobster, Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis).
So, why is there a real-life sheriff and fake mobsters? Probably because the mobbed-up guys who actually founded the gambling mecca were not Italian but Jewish. American TV refuses to believe that all mobsters were not Italian.
That aside, the series is not really about the clash between rancher-sheriff Lamb and casino boss-mobster Savino, but really just a standard murder procedural featuring a mobster.
Anyway, what the series lacks in authentic mobsters, it makes up for in inauthentic art direction. In fact, it looks like the whole thing was styled by an out-of-work Vogue editor.
I found that lack of attention to detail so disconcerting that it was hard at times to even focus on the story.
Like? Like it takes place in the Las Vegas desert in 1960, yet the housing development they show is so McMansion modern that there’s even a satellite dish on one of the houses.
Like? Like the bad-ass bikers sport shaved heads and long beards instead of clean-shaven, Elvis-meets-Brando hairdos and wear modern-looking sweater/sweatshirts.
Chiklis’ Savino also has a shaved head when, in fact, he’d probably back then have had a comb-over, a Saint Anthony fringe or a bad rug. Savino often wears knit shirts to work instead of suits and ties and his minions wear T-shirts under sports jackets. Has no one seen an old movie here?
The powerful ADA (Carrie-Anne Moss) is a hard-bitten albeit quite chic female, which was probably rarer than fish in the desert back then.
The procedural on the premiere, which involves a murdered girl, is so by-the-book that they even find her notes detailing everything an investigator might need to know. The tension is gone before it begins.
Chiklis chews scenery —in a good, very good way — and Quaid is terrific, but both deserve far better than what they’re given here.
On the good side, so far there are no Rat Pack impersonators.