VEGAS S01E07: THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING

I want once again to compliment the fact that the creators stopped using those far-fetched crimes that had very little to do with the main story. It's already the second episode that I actually enjoyed, and there was no jealous boyfriend, or jealous husband, or jealous co-worker to blame for another murder in Vegas. Double murder, to be precise.

Recap:

Farmers found the bodies of David Cornaro and his bodyguard. The news spread fast, so Milwaukee's best, Mr. Jones, comes back to Vegas to avenge Cornaro's death (It was funny, how they attempted to hold an intrigue on who arrived at the airport. I figured it was Jones when I saw his suitcases). "What business are you in?" asks the policeman, while checking Jones' id. "Wholesale butchery", he answers. I thought it was a funny line.

Savino is both furious with his subordinates, who were stupid enough to bury Cornaro in the farm, and terrified for his life. As he was talking to his crew about the unfortunate situation, one of his man and a witness were being killed by Jones, practically just outside the Savoy.

Ralph asks Savino to tell him who killed Cornaro. After he is refused, he floods the casino with cops, "to protect civilians", but actually, to freeze all operations. The news about Savoy closure reached Angelo, and to make peace with Milwaukee he wants to give them the Tumbleweed.

While Lamb and his siblings were trying to find Jones without any success, he showed up at the Savoy, pretending to be a carpet salesman. However, the cop that was checking his ID earlier at the airport recognized him and followed him. When Jones took out his Czechoslovakian gun, the cop told him to drop it and got shot. Savino heard this, run out of his office and wounded Jones.

Ralph and his entourage arrive shortly, extremely upset about the wounded cop. So Savino tells them the name of the shooter (if that's his real name). Ralph then detains Savino and drives him to the ranch. Jones hears the news about Vince's arrest and calls the police station, pretending to be working for a judge and learns from one very talkative deputy where Vincent is really held. Jones then asks for a couple of Milwaukee men and heads to the ranch. But since the talkative cop also mentions the phone conversation he had with Jones to the other (smarter) guys, Jack figures who the caller was and warns Ralph, and so after a short gunfight, Milwaukees were done.

Angelo and Rizzo come for Vincent, they need to clear things up with the Milwaukee mob, but Savino feels the threat. They drive to the place off the beaten track, no Milwaukees there. Angelo then says that to make a peace with the other group, Savino has to be killed. Rizzo points the gun at Vince and...

Shoots Angelo. Aparrenty, Chicago guys did not like that Angelo wanted to give the Tumbleweed away, so they approved his murder. Rizzo is in charge now, which means difficult times for Savino just began.

Oh and Grady won the election.

Overall, it was a great episode, but I still want to give some critique. A lot of things happening in Vegas lead nowhere. I understand that the series was based on the memoir of some sort, but they still give us some excessive, meaningless details. For instance, why was it necessary for Jones to be wounded by Savino? It didn't matter to the story at all. Just like Ralph hitting Savino in the face after some questions about his deceased wife. Or the D.A. taking Mia out. Or Katherine talking to Laura. None of this had any continuation and because of all this, the story loses focus. They have to work on that.

Score 10/10 (only because it was better than all the other episodes of Vegas)

VEGAS S01E06: DID THEY FINALLY GET IT?

Finally! They managed to think of a crime that would actually connect the two worlds of mobsters and cops. So my whining didn't go in vain.

Recap:

Ted Bennett, the mayor, sends auditors to watch Savoy's financial operations, which made it hard for Savino to fulfill his mobster duties. Vincent is outraged, so he goes to the mayor's office and yells at Ted, who shows no intention of reversing his decision. Vince promises Ted would regret this and decides to support the opposing candidate for the mayor's office, George Grady (Gil Bellows). The guy does not look particularly promising, so Vince and his wife put a lot of effort in preparing him for the upcoming debate.

Around the same time Mia discovers fake chips in Savoy, so Vince orders his crew to find one guy and interrogate him about this. The guy seems to have pretty strong spirit, though, and even head dipping to the toilet couldn't make him say a word. Well, mainly because he knew nothing.

A dentist Howard Safran is murdered. Turns out he was quite a gambler and owed a lot of cash (nearly forty grand) to some bookie. However, after Ralph talked to the bookie, he learnt that the dentist recently paid his debt. Ralph and Jack went to visit a place the Howard rented and found some fake Savoy chips made out of dental cement. Alas, the supplies are gone, which means that more chips are about to get to the casino.

So the law and the mob had to unite their powers.They discovered that one night one of Savoy cashiers has cashed several times the amount of just under $2000. The house policy was that for amounts under 2k the cashier did not have to ask for any documents, a policy not known to the general public (although, I'm pretty sure that serious gamblers would know that by now anyway). The total sum added up to the dentist's debt, so obviously, the cashier was helping him out. Ralph took the cashier to the police station to ask her about her accomplice. It was her boyfriend.

In a meanwhile, Savino, who also found out about the cashier's boyfriend from other employees, got to the place where the guy lived. Vince planned to kill the guy, however, Ralph stopped him, so Savino had to be content with just hitting the guy in the face.

As I said I'm glad they finally found a way to connect the two worlds into one compelling story, so it was a pretty fine episode. One thing surprised me, though: Kathrine knew all the faces of the Chicago mob, but not  Laura Savino? A little unprofessional, isn't it? And why would she help Bennet with elections? I thought DA's assistant has better things to do. Finally, why does Savino always wear his hat when he's about to do some dirty business?

Score: 10/10 

VEGAS S01E05: THIS AIN'T NO PLACE FOR THE WEARY KIND

Well, I haven't changed my mind. At this point I can confidently say that it could have been a good mini series, if they'd just tell the mob story, because the crimes that Lamb must deal with are not doing any good to this show.

This week's episode "Solid Citizens" was lacking any real action, even though there was a firefight scene. It opened with Vincent talking to the banker, who mentions that the community which Savino wants to be a part of values family a lot, because it consists of Mormons. So they want to see Vincent in the country club with his wife.

Mrs. Laura Savino (Vinessa Shaw) comes to Vegas and her husband suggests her to move there permanently. He says it is finally possible to live normal, non criminal life, a statement she later doubts as she sees a couple of bullet holes in his car. But after the evening at the country club, she agrees to move on one condition: Vincent must be completely honest with her

The Milwaukee mob is missing a cash transfer ("the sandwich") from Vegas, so they are sending their good man Jones (Damon Herriman) to find out what happened to David Cornaro, whom, as we know, Savino had killed in the last episode. Jones appears at the Savoy to ask Vincent about this. Vincent suggests that Cornaro skipped town and after Jones walks out the door, he orders his minion to make it look so.

Katherine and her little helpers are also looking for David, and they suspect that Savino contributed to this magic disappearance. The disagreement between Jack and Ralph increases as they view Dixon's role in law enforcement differently. Dixon is quite good at being the deputy, but Ralph doesn't want him be endangered, so he doesn't let him take part in any special operations.

Savino's servants leave Cornaro's car near the airport, and so Jones finds a ticket inside and seemingly believes Cornaro's in L.A. Dixon, though, finds a corn chaff in the undercarriage, which could mean that Cornaro's body is somewhere in the cornfield, so Ralph takes Vincent there and says that the secrets or the bodies won't stay buried forever (I doubt this statement to be accurate).

And the kidnapping was organized by little boy's uncle, but who cares.


Score: 6/10

VEGAS: GETTING CLEAN IS NO EASY

I am really behind my schedule and my only excuse is that I'm lazy. I wrote the post below some time ago, but I couldn't find any strength in me to edit it.

The story in Vegas's fourth episode "(Il)Legitimate" was once again rolling around the idea that the right way doesn't get you very far, especially, if you're a mobster.

Vincent Savino is declined on Savoy expansion plan by his Chicago bosses, but he has another idea: he wants to buy a part of next door's Tumbleweed Club with a bank loan, without Angelo knowing. Unfortunately, there is a little snag - another group called Milwaukee mob is also interested in Tumbleweed and they're already organizing strikes and  throwing firebombs there. Savino tries to peacefully persuade their boss to back up by promising more money after some time, but he's eventually attacked by two brave Milwaukee gunmen. Savino survives, but then the main problem appears: sneaky Johnny Rizzo, who somehow gets to know about Vincent's plan, demands fifty per cent of Savino's share for not telling Angelo. Vincent is then forced to send two of his gunmen to take care of  Milwaukee boss, he now can't afford to lose this deal.

I thought Dixon would fall for Mia, but it's actually Jack. Their romantic story is a little more compelling than that of Ralph and Katherine's, but it'll probably turn out more tragic as well.

The procedural part of story is not worth going into, really, I feel like the writers are failing to come up with a story particularly relevant to the rest of the series. The tale about a black girl with rich white father and drug addicted brother, who has strong position about the strike and is eventually killed by a fellow maid out of, well, jealousy, just didn't feel right, it was overcrowded with too many lines and was overall an unnecessary extra.

Sheriff Lamb's softer side was also revealed as he had nostalgic feelings towards the old tree, which reminds him of his deceased wife.

Overall, "IlLegitimate" seemed like the weakest episode of Vegas so far, but I'm still interested in seeing how the mob story ends, so I'm glad that CBS ordered the full season of this series.

Score 5/10

VEGAS: ANGER MANAGEMENT

There was a couple of "new old" faces in the Vegas's episode 3, "All That Glitters":

                          Jonathan Banks as Angelo, the main boss of Chicago gang (he starred in Breaking Bad)

Aimee Garcia as Yvonne Sanchez, working for the Sheriff (also seen in Dexter). I recognized her the last episode also,  but her part was insignificant then.

Michael Wiseman as Johnny Rizzo, Mia's father (Wiseman has a very long list of appearances on TV, not many leads though).

Anyway, I'll say from the start that obviously, I'm not watching Vegas every week to see another issue of cowboy CSI, it's the mob story line that I love to follow.

What happened: 

A press conference of the American boxing team is held. They are back from Rome Summer Olympics with gold medals. The issue of racism was briefly addressed at that point (a boxer, Ray, who's an African American, was refused to be served breakfast). Later, one of the boxers, Tommy (Toby Meuli), head covered in blood, collapses on the street. Here I had a feeling of deja vu: it looked like a beginning of any episode of House, only this time, unfortunately, the patient didn't make it to the hospital (not that anyone tried to take him there).

We meet, as usually, a couple of suspects. The last time I guessed the murderer when he appeared, this time I guessed who hit Tommy with a metal stick. That was Ronnie (Austin Herbert), a fellow boxer who was abusing his wife. As Tommy tried to arrange Ronnie's wife escape, he got hit with the stick. But that's not what killed him.The writers made a twist to the story: Tommy was taking painkillers for his broken neck, and his bestie Ray (Alano Miller) tried to keep him away from the ring and fed him a couple of his asthma pills. We all know where a road paved with good intentions leads to; the combination of painkillers and asthma pills caused a heart attack Tommy died from.

Guilty!

Now to the good stuff. In my review of the previous episode I thought that killing two feds and a witness would be a problem to Savino. Well, it isn't. Apparently, it was impossible to prove that the explosion wasn't just an industrial accident (well, that's what the D.A. says and he's corrupted, as we know). But Savino does have a problem: Chicago boss, Angelo, comes to check on him. Vincent wants to use this opportunity to ask for money for expansion of Savoy, but there's mister hothead in his way, Jonathan Rizzo, the CFO of the gang, so to say.

Vincent and Angelo. Gosh, they look like twins!

Michael Chiklis is getting better and better, though it can't be hard to outshine Dennis Quaid and his uncharismatic entourage. Vincent Savino is a very layered, sophisticated character (he is based on a real-life mobster Marshall Caifano), he has great plans for Las Vegas: he wants to completely change the landscape of the city by turning Savoy into an incredible entertaining centre. Other casino owners would then have to match that or go out of business. Mia seems to support that idea and she seems to grow loyal to Savino. She's clearly ambitious.

Our three musketeers, Katherine, Jack and Ralph are trying to figure out how to bring Savino to justice.

Katherine wears practically only two colors: green and red, which seems a bit weird.  Jack's  funky shirts  I can't really comment on.

And the best idea they could think of is to put Ralph's head into the wasp nest. Rizzo, we learn, can't lose with dignity, and as he got upset at some point in the past, he left one of the dealers one-eyed, so he's in the black book and can't play in Vegas. Savino tries to make everyone happy: he creates a personal casino for Rizzo in a penthouse. The dealer lets Rizzo win, which, apparently is also offensive. Rizzo beats up the dealer   

and goes to the Savoy to play. *Can't not to mention that Savino asks "to call their guy" to fix the dealer, but we don't see the doctor. That's how much the mob doctor actually matters to the mob bosses.*

Ralph arrests Rizzo (that's when a signature punch-up happened and for the first time I enjoyed it, Rizzo was very unpleasant throughout the whole episode and finally someone made his face meet the table), which obviously made the latter very upset. Rizzo wants Lamb dead. Here we have a little "mob court of justice" scene, where Rizzo makes a case for and Savino against Lamb's murder. The fans of legal dramas must be satisfied.

The mob jury

Savino wins and the next day the gang leaves Vegas. I guess Rizzo is not in good terms with Vincent now (even worse than before). Angelo says Savino does a good job with Savoy, but he doesn't seem to support the idea of expansion. He also says that Vincent should bring his family to Vegas.

So, I don't know what Lamb achieved by his bold move or even what he hoped for, but it was fun to watch.

I wish they could drop the procedural and concentrate on the mob line solely, that's why I can't put 10 out of 10 score. 

         Here's a creepy Lamb's smile instead of a goodbye.

Score: 9/10 

    

VEGAS: MONEY PLAYS

There's one thing you can accuse Vegas of: they are playing too safe. The majority of the events happening in the series have already been used in a bunch of other movies. I mean, how many times before I've seen how a hero tells his sidekick to stay outside, while going to a dangerous place full of armed criminals, only for the latter to disobey and save the former on a very last minute.

And then for a period drama portraying the 1960s, they seem to have too many women with rather successful careers. In addition to Assistant District Attorney, we now meet a new manager for Savoy accounting department, a daughter of Chicago mob boss, Mia Rizzo (I was expecting a fatal chick to appear at some point, now we have to wait for her to hook up with Dixon, right?).

Mia

There's also a victim's girlfriend, who seems to be a bit frivolous dating one guy, then shortly after having an affair with another. I wasn't even born at the time when the story happens, of course, so I might be wrong about it, but it doesn't seem like socially accepted behavior, so they can't really use it all the time (last episode's murdered girl also run away with her boyfriend and just lived with him, unmarried). I don't know, maybe they wanted to reflect the second wave of feminism like that, but it comes out too intense. Then, of course, they balance it by seriously comparing a woman to a hat.

Look at her! A man was killed over you and you're all joyful a couple days later.

Savino and Lamb's relations so far resemble those of Emily Thorne and Victoria Grayson of Revenge: they despise each other, but don't openly attack. What they do probably falls into the definition of trolling: Ralph personally brings back to Vincent his man, who tried to assassinate Perrin in prison, whereas Vincent sends chips Ralph said he doesn't want to Ralph's home. Bold, but it worked!

Investigation itself was carried out smoother than the last time, but also was more predictable. I knew who the killer was exactly when I saw him giving a stare at the end of the first conversation  he had with Ralph's brother.

I still believe it's the best drama that premiered this fall (maybe Nashville can beat it), it's not a masterpiece, of course, but it's solid. And I still like the bad guy more. But now as he blew Perrin and a couple of Feds up, he'll be in trouble, I presume.

Score 8/10

VEGAS EPISODE 2 (MONEY PLAYS) RECAP

IT'S VEGAS, BABY!

It is with great prejudice that I watched the first episode of Vegas (CBS), as I thought, it would be a trashy western, resembling Walker, Texas Ranger, with tough cowboy guys and pretentious speeches, with ruthless criminals and corrupted officials, with the main character being the only one who can solve all the crimes, win a fight alone against three guys and just carry his riffle with him wherever he goes. Well, it was all of the above, and yet I quite liked it.

Dennis Quaid as Ralph Lamb

The two main characters are rancher Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid), an old guy with permanently angry face, most of the time armed, you know, the kind that the Republican party is constantly trying to appeal to; and Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis), a great businessman, casino owner and, surprise-surprise, a cruel gangster. Honestly speaking, so far I liked the latter more. As I said, he seems to have great entrepreneurial and, for that matter, managerial skills, and if he wasn't a gangster (can't blame him for being one, though, a man needed starting capital) he would still be able to make money on this casino. Plus, he seems to have some sort of principals, as we see him beat up his subordinate's servant, who took the liberty, without Savino's order, to 'lay his hands' on one of the casino workers that was supposed to know where the current Sheriff is hiding. So no initiative goes unpunished after all.

Michael Chiklis as Vincent Savino

Carrie-Anne Moss is playing an Assistant District Attorney, Katherine O’Connell, who was raised on the ranch next to Lamb's, so she knows him well. She'll probably become Lamb's crush, if I may use that word; so far Moss's character wasn't convincing in terms of her set of professional skills, but she looks great in these 60's style clothes.

Carrie-Anne Moss as Katherine O'Connel

The recreation of the time when the story is happening is solid, it is interesting that things characteristic to that period of American history in this region matter to the story line, like how the dead body was discovered by pilots performing a sweep before the next blast on a nuclear test site. I'm looking forward to seeing more of such references.

It was a simpier time when everyone could punch anyone in the face; when mayor had the power to release an arrested man and put him in charge of investigation of a resonant murder; when Sheriff could lock up the lawyer in a cell with a bunch of his criminal clients; when evidence found during the search without a warrant still counted as evidence.

The episode followed the rules of a typical police procedural. First, a body of a governor's niece, Samantha Meade, is found, we later learn that she worked in Savino's casino verifying credit limits for highrollers. Lamb is put in charge of this investigation, because the current Sheriff is hiding somewhere from the gangsters' wrath. He asks his brother Jack and his son Dixon for assistance.In return mayor promises to deal with airplanes flying above Ralph's ranch and scaring his cattle.

Samantha Meade

We meet a number of suspects, like Samantha's boyfriend and a bunch of bikers, but it's Ralph's sneaking around in casino what helps establish that, before her unfortunate death, the victim had a meeting with a guy called Stuart Mills, an employee of the bank, who is thought to be stealing from his place of employment, to gamble and who's now nowhere to be found. Lamb finds him in cheap motel, but Mills says he's not the murderer, he believes that Perrin, Samantha's boss, who had a secret deal with him killed the girl. Eventually, Perrin is brought to justice, but not before some chasing and shooting tires was performed. In a meanwhile, Savino kills the current Sheriff, who was drawn out to the desert by Katherine's boss, District Attorney. After the dead body of the former Sheriff is found, Lamb takes his place. He is officially the law now.

As I said, it turned out much better than I expected, so I'll keep watching it.

Score 8/10

CITIES OF MUSIC AND SIN

Vegas or Nashville? A cowboy or a country music star? Murders, fights and tough guys or intrigues, betrayal and tough girls?We can now have both.

Vegas, a new drama on CBS, is said to be based on the true story of a Las Vegas Sheriff in the1960's. I believe the show is following a declining now trend, set by Mad Men, a trend of portraying America's recent past (others of the same sort are Pan Am, Magic City, The Playboy Club).

The story rolls around an antagonism between a rancher Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid, The Day after Tomorrow) and a Chicago gangster Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis, The Shield). If you missed a direct, honest old guy with big fists, this series might be just what you want. Though I'll watch it for lulz.

Dennis Quaid as Ralph Lamb

Geeks might also be excited to see how Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) is playing Assistant District Attorney, Katherine O'Connell.

The show was written by Nicholas Pileggi (Casino, City Hall) and Greg Walker (The X-Files, Smallville), and directed by James Mangold (Knight and Day, NYC 22). It premiers on the 28th of September.

The story of Nashville (ABC) is happening in our time and it's about a fading star of country music, Rayna James (Connie Britton, American Horror Story) and a young and ambitious singer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere, Heroes). Naturally, Juliette will try to overthrow Rayna from her Olympus, and Rayna will do what she can to hold her reign. Must be a good soap, unless they fill it with clichés up to the point when every turn is predictable.

Connie Britton as Rayna James

The show was created by Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise), who actually lived in Nashville for some time. Besides Khouri, executive producers of the show are R.J. Cutler (also directed the pilot), James D. Parriott (Sons of Anarchy, Grey’s Anatomy) and Steve Buchanan (was involved in production of various country music specials and TV movies).