Will HBO's Luck Be as Good As David Milch's Previous Masterpiece Deadwood?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFauXXvGysc

This Sunday, January 29, is my 28th birthday and there are three parts of the plan to make it a success: a morning trip to DisneyLand, homemade sushi for dinner (April just got this sushizi sushi maker thing — expect a write-up about it here on PJ Lifestyle sometime next week,) and in the evening on HBO it’s the premiere of Luck, the new drama from Deadwood creator David Milch starring Dustin Hoffman. (Also expect my review Monday morning here at PJ Lifestyle.)

There are few TV shows I’ve enjoyed as much as Deadwood over the last decade. The reinvention of the Western mesmerizes with its unique dialogue, vivid characters, twisting plot, unique setting, and startling action. I’ve probably watched the whole series at least twice and should watch it again. (If nothing else so I can compare it with The Wire which I’m almost finished watching.)

Will we now get that same intensity and drama only at a horse track?

So far so good. Check out this preview of the show at The Atlantic:

When it comes to luck, and the new HBO series Luck, there is no in-between. There is only good luck and bad luck. And the nine-episode-long morality play brought to us by creators Michael Mann and David Milch–not brought to us, more like thrown in our faces–doesn’t pretend to argue otherwise. The low are raised high in this dark work about human vanity and vice. And the high are laid low. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. And then bad things just happen. It’s a dramatic series, and a powerful paean, for all you people out there who don’t believe that shit just happens.

About the only thing about Luck—which premieres on Sunday at 9 pm Eastern—that comes directly and honestly at you is the title. The title–and of course the horses, the magnificent animals, who grace the screen in every episode as brilliant props.

Read the whole thing. It looks like we’ll have a show that could deliver some potent, serious moments:

At the bottom end of the spectrum, we are introduced to a group of four diehard gamblers, led by the brilliant Kevin Dunn as the disabled, breathless, cranky Marcus. At the other end of the line is Dustin Hoffman, as Ace Bernstein, the mobbed-up guy just out of prison who has eyes for a special horse, the racetrack, and for California racing itself. The only thing they have in common, aside from wanting to spend a lot of time at the track, is that they both have a dim view of human nature. And why not? One is scarred on the outside; the other on the inside. One expresses it in virtually every sentence. The other hides it behind a rich mask