The hands are dealt; we get to see how we play them.

February 19, 2013 6:07 PM

Luck was a David Milch-created show on HBO last year. It was cancelled after one season. Some of you might have dug it. If so, you might also dig Out of Luck: "The following blog is the writer’s depiction of an imagined racetrack-based story, an ongoing saga, which includes some of the characters depicted in the ill-fated Luck series." It's written by John Perrotta who was a writer/producer/story editor on the show.
posted by dobbs (15 comments total)

Talk about flogging a dead horse.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:18 PM on February 19, 2013 [3 favorites]

FACT, Milch will never come close to Deadwood. John from Cincinnati was terrible and Luck was cursed (and not that great).

HBO killed the best thing Milch will ever do.
posted by xmutex at 6:20 PM on February 19, 2013

The scripts will also be available in the frozen food aisle at your local Tesco.
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:20 PM on February 19, 2013 [2 favorites]

Ba-dum tssh!
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 6:23 PM on February 19, 2013

Even as someone who never saw the show, I can't help but think that a creator continuing the story of a show he felt was canceled too soon is exactly what I want the Internet to be for.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 6:27 PM on February 19, 2013 [11 favorites]

I liked Luck, but I think his bizarre stilted dialog only really works in a period piece where we can pretend people actually talked like that instead of wondering why people are talking like that.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:49 PM on February 19, 2013 [2 favorites]

Agreed, MCM. Though reading the writers plans for a canceled show can't make me miss it any less, particularly the great shows, which often are the results of such unique alchemy that no one mind in isolation will come close to matching them. I've read a lot about how Deadwood was a highly collaborative show that was created by everybody on the set - what scripts there were Milch had usually cranked out just hours before shooting, and much changed in the process. As talented as a writer can be, I doubt any can recreate that magic. I wonder if JfC & Luck wouldn't have improved (from, in my view, pretty decent but flawed) if given room to grow a little.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 6:53 PM on February 19, 2013

HBO killed the best thing Milch will ever do.

Is that really what happened, though? I thought Milch left to go do John from Cincinnati.
posted by adamdschneider at 8:22 PM on February 19, 2013

No, that's what happened, adamdscheider. Milch preferring to do JFC was a lie.
posted by dobbs at 8:36 PM on February 19, 2013

Oh man I'm rewatching Deadwood right now.

I really really really kinda want to write a spin-off called Al Swearengen's Chrono Engine, in which Al travels to the the distant future and makes his way in a sci-fi setting. It would have a kind of Star Wars feel to the universe; with some sort of scary police state as stand-in for the United State's role in the show, and Al again trying to make his way on the periphery of their realm, among the less regulated frontier-planets. Watching Al react to this environment and then come to carve out his corner of it would be glorious.

But then shit gets complicated when he's getting cornered in one of his scams, so he goes back in time to retrieve a prior Al Swearengen from Deadwood from before he found the time machine. Except instead of playing along, this new (old) Al Swearengen kills the old (new) Al Swearengen and takes his place in future. Eventually Dan, Adams, Johnny, Bullock and George Hearst all also make their way to the future. Dan, Adams and Johnny remain Swearengen's minions; Bullock and Al's relationship is primarily antagonistic, but Hearst is their common foe.

I know it sounds ridiculous but honestly you have no idea how amazing this would be. Just picture Al sitting on top of a pile of robotic police he's just dismantled with his bare hands, bloodied, saying, "Law men. They don't make them like they fucking used to," and that's the concept in a nutshell. That and the idea of one Al Swearengen betraying another to avoid being anyone's pawn, and mercilessly killing himself.

Anyway yeah I really like Deadwood.
posted by neuromodulator at 12:01 AM on February 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

neuromodulator: "I really really really kinda want to write a spin-off called Al Swearengen's Chrono Engine, in which Al travels to the the distant future and makes his way in a sci-fi setting. "

Give it up, friend. We got the movie, but Firefly is never coming back.
posted by stet at 12:40 AM on February 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

oh man I really liked Luck. But can't bring myself to read that.
posted by Burgatron at 5:05 AM on February 20, 2013

I wonder if JfC & Luck wouldn't have improved (from, in my view, pretty decent but flawed) if given room to grow a little.

I liked JFC a lot, but I like those sorts of shows. I've watched it again and it stands up fine. Luck was a little too mumbly, but I liked it too.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:46 AM on February 20, 2013

I liked Luck lots, and thought it had potential. It only got about 6 or 7 episodes in so there would have been growth had it continued. I also respect that they shut it down due to the deaths of horses. I mean that is really quite surprising when you consider how much resources had been invested.

I feel that Deadwood is the best show ever made, and I am really really enjoying Justified which seems to be finding it's voice. Give that one a shot.
posted by vito90 at 11:12 AM on February 20, 2013

I also think Deadwood is the best show ever made and have watched it 7 times. I've also watched JFC three times and Luck twice. So there.
posted by dobbs at 9:32 PM on February 20, 2013