Do you remember the first time you saw “Deadwood” or “The Sopranos,” and you couldn’t figure out what the hell you’d just seen — but you knew you wanted more?
That’s exactly how you’ll probably feel after watching HBO’s new unlike-anything-you’ve-ever-seen series, “Luck,” about life at the track. For one thing, it has the best characters on TV since “The Sopranos.”
However, the dialogue is so authentic, you might want to invite over a degenerate gambler to interpret for you.
Lucky for me, I have a live-in ex-professional gambler — who traveled the world as a card counter with Jeff Katzenberg, of Dreamworks — interpreting for me.
It was like having a UN interpreter who speaks “track” translating beside me.
The series, from David Milch of “Deadwood” and Michael Mann of “Miami Vice,” is a slowly evolving story not of tony WASPs who own horses, nor even the Wall Street horses’ asses who invest in them.
This is a series about trainers, jockeys, on-track owners, mobsters and gamblers — the real people who live and work at the bizarre world of the track.
It’s the story of two long-shot horses who get bought against all, er, odds, by two improbable groups.
First is a group of four degenerate gamblers: There’s fat, foul-mouthed, colostomy-bag-wearing, emphysema-wheezing Marcus (Kevin Dunn); idiots Renzo (Ritchie Coster) and Lonnie (Ian Hart); plus total degenerate Jerry (Jason Gedrick).
The other owner is Gus, (Dennis Farina), body guard/sycophant/killer and assistant to mobbed-up Ace Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman). Gus somehow won over $2 million on the slots in Vegas while his boss was serving three years after taking the fall for a bunch of mobsters.
The pitch-perfect chemistry between Gus and Ace, as well as the four degenerates, is funny and scary at the same time.
Also in the ensemble are two trainers, Turo Escalante (John Ortiz), a disreputable but incredible trainer, and Walter Smith, (Nick Nolte), who loves, understands and has devoted his life to horses.
There’s Joey, a stuttering, broken-down agent, played brilliantly by Richard Kind; and the track veterinarian, played by Jill Hennessey in smart, against-the-grain casting. Finally there’s Tom Payne as a young, cocky jockey, Kerry Condon as an exercise girl, and real-life jockey Gary Stevens, as a boozy, half-washed-up veteran jockey.
With an impossibly good cast, writing so spot-on it’s poetic, and slow-build stories, I, for one, was left wanting more — even after watching the entire season.
Horse-racing bets
Win, place and show — first, second or third place. If can bet a horse to show, you still collect if it wins or comes in second
Exacta — betting the first two horses in a race in the correct order
Quinella — first two finishers in no particular order. Pays about half what a winning exacta bet would pay
Trifecta — first three finishers. Usually big pay out.
Double — winners of two races in a row, usually the first and second race (the “early” double) or the eighth and ninth races (the “late” double)
Pick Six — the winner of six races in a row, usually the third through eighth races of the day