Luck Review

HBO’s Luck on Amazon Prime is this week’s choice for review. With the star played by Dustin Hoffman, I had high hopes for this horse-racing series. For those who haven’t seen it, IMDB describes Luck simply as:

“A TV series centered around characters who are tied to the same horse-racing track.”

Hoffman plays an ex-mob boss just out of prison who discovers his passion for horse racing, but his old life won’t let him off that easily. Now, while I hoped this would be a great show, the pacing was almost grueling. It had enough going for it to keep me watching after the first few episodes and was getting much better toward the end of the first season.

However, evidently there was a lot of controversy between PETA, TMZ, and Hoffman’s new series over 3 horses that died on set over the two years of shooting. It was enough that HBO cancelled the series due to the bad PR while shooting season 2. There were also claims of drugging the animals and other such abuses, per The Hollywood Reporter, but TMZ tried to distance itself from PETAs claims at one point. I don’t know who was right or wrong, but the result limited Luck to one season.

If the complaints were warranted, I am happy that no more horses will be put through that abuse. While I wish Dustin Hoffman’s series would have done better simply because I’m a fan of his past work, I can’t say I am too disappointed. The pacing was slow enough to make it one you should pass on if you have something better to watch. If you can’t find much else to watch, the first season of Luck is entertaining, if you can get past the initial pacing.

Luck: 3.5 Stars

Weston Kincade ~ Author of the A Life of Death collection, The Priors, and Strange Circumstances