[wavewatcher]

Hey Cissy! Always great to see a post from an old friend!
I'm almost caught up with Luck (halfway through Ep 5- fell asleep last night).
Love the layers and all of the characters.
Rathburn (the jockey agent) is a scene stealer.
Jason Gedrick rips your heart out at the poker table.
Nick Nolte is a wonder.
Was anyone else shocked when Dustin Hoffman meets with his board of directors? I thought he was more of a gangster and didn't see that coming!
Great show so far!

[Cissy]

  Hi Everyone, and hey, Jimmy! long time mbfam. Thanks for your welcome Sven :)  I'm not delusional! I do see IB there. I'm loving when a character is allowed to do a Bill Jacks inner discourse. Love Nick doing it, but heard... who was that? Ep. 4 I think. Was it the sweaty jock pusher I don't like so very much? Sorry, I see the respect here for him, I've just never gotten along with that actor. Hoffman would have been a waste if they were only giving one season. Mann gets the 2 seasons, even though there is plenty of complaining about the sound track everywhere you read. (personal grrrrr here & you know why) Also plenty of complaning about the usual, over budget, over time. Now where have we heard that before? But because Mann is on it? Hm.
I am grateful for every single IB aspect to this show. I knew I would love it. My Dad used to take me to the county fairs and down to the paddocks and have me choose horses, at 8, 9 years old. I read nothing at that age but anything about horses. He let me pick the horse, I kinda 'get' Milch's experience, though at a county fair, it's mellow there.  My name is down there, at Santa Anita, did I tell you? On The Breeders Cup.
I am nuts for horses. No two ways about that. Good money after bad though, breeding if you ain't got a lot of money, and you just aren't a hang at the track sort of person. I'm better on the farm. Ranch. Whatever. I cannot watch this show and then sleep! I couldn't believe you were watching before bed! I want to badly to watch 2 more eps, but I'll be up till 10:00 a.m., I get so wound up. In a good way.

Somehow, though it's a smaller vehicle? The scenes inside the car with our little Surf Motel group have a serious Vietnam Joe Van feel to them, anyone else notice that?
Big Love to you all!!! :-*

[Cissy]

I just watched the latest ep. tonight. At sleep time.
Wonder if it's always this point in the series? I have to watch Deadwood, and count ep.s till we get to the comparative one to this ep. I cannot believe you fell asleep. It was the 'human/humane' episode. The underlying stuff, a lot of it.
I'm still trying to process. There's only one thing I know for sure about this episode; that vet was never going to leave the Peruvian that night. I'm thrilled it's a Peruvian, I'm more than crazy about Peru. But I also understand him better, the character, because I have spent time there, and with the people. I actually know a man like him. And I know others there, or from there who, well, let's say different socio economic backgrounds breed different men. In a third world, that's truly a horse of a different color.
Should I try to read a little of "It" to get sleepy with? hahahahaha
It is so good, each of you, it's so good to be here where any time, you might be, and we all be thinking of each other, because we were here.
I am grateful.
Someone talk about the horses, in last weeks ep. or point me where I should be finding you. Please?  You know how it says in books ' my heart was in my throat?' Mine was. Worked a little on my 6 pack too. I was scared and well, more scared than excited. So much heart. As in Rosie's ride, the heart is all. No one feels like a loser when they see a race like that. 
I screw up if I preview, so am sure I would if I spell checked, operator error, I know. So please, forgive any typos or flat out mis spellings?
yo' sfam

[Sven2]

Cissy, it's you that is all heart!

The Peruvian might be not a Peruvian though, maybe you know that Ortiz grew up in NY or something like that and can speak English without any accent.

The last episode is the most emotionally revealing for me, it's also the point where JFC and Mr.Milch's "ultimate tenderness" as one of the critics called it, comes to the surface. Everyone is painfully open, vulnerable, fragile, including the supposed tough guys, Escalante and Ace.

Great to have you here, Cissy. Have you ridden many horses? Have you owned any? Do tell!

[Sven2]

This is a comment to Luck episode recaps.
Should be well accepted by people familiar with John From Cincinnati archetypes.

by Rasdiff

Re: Luck Recap: No Icing Error, This

What I'm saying is that if you watch the show Milch is writing there is nothing slow moving about this at all. Listen close to the lines that don't quite make sense, or just appear to be thrown away, and in those words you will find the story Milch is really telling. The "fresh apples over there" Ace tosses out after the parole officer gives up on the demand of seeing the sample hit the cup first-hand should be all the veteran Milch watcher needs to understand Ace's true identity. Ace is the guy at the front end of the Bible handing out apples in Eden, but Luck is not that story.
This is the story found at the other end of the book. The story Milch is telling here is of the coming of the judgment. Once you understand Ace's role, the horn playing imagery around the parole officer tells his story. I have no knowledge of future episodes but have little doubt that when the officer gets a name, it will be Gabriel. The "Never, never near a horse, I've a lifetime ambition to keep it that way" quote makes sense. The coming of the horses will leave him no choice but to blow his horn, which will herald the death of countless millions by sword and by fire.
Memory-losing Ace remembering seeing Miles Davis play Sept 8th, no September 9th 1958 at a club in what must have been his mid-teens does not quite add up. See Ace as timeless and it makes this viewing far more possible. Which brings up Ace's old friend turned enemy Mike. Like Gabriel, Michael is one of the seven Archangels. His fame is for casting Lucifer (the fallen angel) out of heaven and into the underworld. Even on the surface level Michael's conversation with Ace on the yacht is both beautiful and terrifying, but see the story Milch is telling and Mike's description of Christ on the cross is no longer something he read, but is instead something the two men witnessed firsthand.
That Michael is corrupt to his core and with the wise Gabriel willing to let things play out as Ace moves to secure a venue for his plot, it is already clear this is a very different telling of the Revelation. Nothing here is slow moving, and the stakes in this gamble are considerably more than whether or not Mike can afford to keep his yacht when all is said and done. At the poker table Milch has brought us to, the minimum bet is the fate of humankind.
Download the Golden Gate Quartet's version of "That Great Getting Up Morning" on i-tunes, 99 cents that if you are watching Luck will make your HBO subscription far more valuable.


from:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/luck-recap-season-1-episode-6.html#comments

[Sven2]

"That Great Getting Up Morning" is classic, here it is in Mahalia Jackson's interpretation.
Mahalia Jackon In That Great Gettin' Up Morning

[Sven2]

The full series, episode by episode recaps and additional opinions about "Luck" in "Vulture", all in one place. Recaps author is Matt Zeller Seitz.

http://www.vulture.com/tv/luck/

[Cissy]

Hello Sven and everybody!
Just finished tonight's Luck. I cried! When Ace was 'jogging' with the horse? I just nah nahed into tears!
Escalante, the character just keeps on doing exactly what I expect him to do. I love it. Looks like,
from the preview, she isn't going to get to keep that babe, he will be sorry about that. Ace is breaking
my heart, simple and sweet things he loves, hard "Ace Bernstein" he is only a shadow of now I am thinking.
He will over react to Mr. Israel's unfortunate incident. The 'conversation' Jerry and Naomi? had in the car
I found to be rather... what, different? laughing. Unhappy about Rosie and Smith and Ronni, dammit Ronni!
Ronni could use a visit from John, eh?
I need to find the 'nest' place. Off to look for it.

[Sven2]

Hey, what nest are you in search of? IMDB? See you there, Cissy.  ;)

Yes, Ace and the horse walking in step are touching, although is Ace that sweet and harmless, of that I am not so sure. Nathan is dead, and Ace is the one who sent "The Kid" to be slaughtered, didn't he?

I would like to learn what is ahead for the Latino boy, Eduardo,  who appeared in this episode. I'm guessing he'll be under Turo's wing, who might be seeing himself in the boy.

[Cissy]

I was thinking about the black and white photo Turo turns to, on his mantle, of a little boy. I'm thinking he's lost one along the way somewhere. A son, a brother? Someone from his past, some male child has gone missing, and he misses that child. I agree Sven, he will take that little one on, and he'll do it the
way it gets done. Remember, Turo started out shoveling horse droppings? I have done my share, I'm lucky the smell agrees with me :)

Ace isn't real sure who he is anymore I think. He went to his own room, alone tonight to watch his horse. I'm thinking the man who went away for 3 years isn't the man who came out. He's going through the motions, but I get the feeling he'd as soon walk away from the revenge business when he's with his lady, or his horse.
I really don't think he thought 'the kid' would be killed, I think that's going to put him back further into his 'Ace' persona where acting out in his way won't be accepted by those new in his life, and he likes the new in his life.
Off to read IMBD, you all are sleeping now. 'night~

[Sven2]

Luck is cancelled

"It is with heartbreak that executive producers David Milch and Michael Mann together with HBO have decided to cease all future production on the series LUCK.

Safety is always of paramount concern.  We maintained the highest safety standards throughout production, higher in fact than any protocols existing in horseracing anywhere with many fewer incidents than occur in racing or than befall horses normally in barns at night or pastures.  While we maintained the highest safety standards possible, accidents unfortunately happen and it is impossible to guarantee they won't in the future.  Accordingly, we have reached this difficult decision.

We are immensely proud of this series, the writing, the acting, the filmmaking, the celebration of the culture of horses, and everyone involved in its creation."

Quote from Michael Mann and David Milch:  "The two of us loved this series, loved the cast, crew and writers.  This has been a tremendous collaboration and one that we plan to continue in the future."

http://www.seat42f.com/luck-halts-production.html

[wavewatcher]

If there was ever any doubt, it is now official...Milch (and anything he touches) is cursed. I'm sorry, but this is not about the horses. 3 groundbreaking shows all end prematurely, leaving the viewer unfulfilled, angry. Great and beautiful storytelling...but in the grand scheme...bad TV.

[Sven2]

JFC and Luck were  trying to transcend TV, wavewatcher, that's the problem, but apparently the author's power was not enough to defy gravitation. Horses deaths are just portends, signs. 

Curse? Maybe.

I am sad and angry, yes. Luck is now where JFC is, where our memories call to each other, and only the silence answers.

[ZenOnMars]

Wow.  "Bad" Luck, for sure.  Will HBO finish airing the finished episodes?  Or is this it? 

[Cissy]

Seems I find myself just not being able to believe this. When Breaking Bad was rejected by hbo, AMC took it an bless them, look what they made.
Is there a way this could not happen for this show? Or are contracts in place forbidding such action? I'm not saying who cares horses die, not by a very long shot, but, what are the actual statistics on horse deaths over the same period of time when it isn't being a film. Anyone know? I did read that post, but wasn't sure it meant that it was certainly within the actual statistics, even less than normal? Or average, or worse?
This show has simply gotten better with each episode, I am hearing from people who intended to watch, who hadn't seen an ep yet, very unhappy this has happened.

I just think, if it's well within the actual 'norm' for this track, the number of horses dying that year, or that quarter, then it's sorta not the filming's fault. It's just what happens.
Sven really think that they were looking for an excuse? This was going great, truly. The connections and the personalities all laid out just so we don't get to know what happens to them? I really hope that Mr. Hoffman for one, would let the rest of the story he supported telling on a different channel. Sue hbo if you have to, lots of people are coming late to really like this show, season 2 would cement it's viewers.
I have heard that the other is true as well, that Milch is just too difficult in so many ways to work with. Did Deadwood only get to go on because it had enough naked ladies and killings?  Not because it was brilliant?