After the emotional high points reached in last week's installment of Luck, it's only natural that this week's episode, written by Scott Willson and directed by Brian Kirk, feels a bit like a come-down. But the seeming pause in the action allows for revelatory moments of introspection which will inform the plot developments that arise as the first season heads into its backstretch. Characteristic of such introspection is the opening shot, trained on a reflection of Ace (Dustin Hoffman) before reframing on the man himself. Using mirrors both literal and figurative, this episode reminds us that three of Luck's characters, Ace, Joey (Richard Kind), and Marcus (Kevin Dunn), each bluff their way through many of their personal dealings considering their hidden good nature.
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Richard Kind was particularly strong in the fifth episode of 'Luck'. He's normally utilized in comedic roles, but he's an excellent dramatic performer too. His character's situation and reactions were very well-written this week, and Kind brought a great deal of believability to his agonized Joey and how abruptly his circumstances have changed.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't done so and get the chance, I would recommend watching all five episodes in one sitting back to back. I did this last night, and noticed a lot more by doing so including how much Milch & Co. play with normal grammatical structure in their characters' dialogue (including Escalante's Spanglish and how Smith often uses imagery when describing something to another character).
I couldn't help it. I saw all NINE episodes back-to-back.
ReplyDeleteMilch's dialogue has always fascinated me. It's why I dedicate a portion of all my reviews to celebrating his Milch-speak. His background is in linguistics. It's also why I'm presently in the midst of re-watching his run on NYPD BLUE (available on Amazon Prime and iTunes). Other writers might be credited for individual episodes, but he always puts the final polish on each script for all of his series.
Nice, watching all nine episodes back to back sounds really cool.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched the first five episodes back to back on Sunday night, I was forced to turn on the closed captioning because my pet hamster was being very loud as it ran on its wheel. The grammatical structure of the characters' dialogue seemed so mixed up that I assumed the closed captioning was a little off as it usually is. I raised the volume, and to my surprise the characters were actually speaking with certain parts of speech moved out of typical order.
I didn't know Milch came from a linguistics background, and I think 'Milch Speak' is a great term that you've come up with.
Lastly, I absolutely savored the way Gambon simply says "Oh. I do want a piece".