Giff wrote:Vinyl's premiere was too long, but I think it'll end up being good.
I was disappointed. Andrew Dice Clay stole the show, he was fantastic. The music selection was incoherent; it's like Marty picked 30 of his favorite songs across all genres (and they were all great tunes) and tossed in 20 second snips almost at random.
I worried that the subject is difficult to adapt to a movie or TV series. The very small number of successful music industry themed shows testifies to this difficulty. It is also very easy to slip into a drug abuse story, which has been told every which way already. (My personally having 1) worked in the music biz; 2) lived in New York at the tail end of the period the show describes; 3) have my own up close and personal experiences with the drug thing are more reasons for me to not be that interested in a TV treatment of this kind of story.)
Scorsese and the other big shots involved gave me some hope. The story of the emergence of Punk and Hip Hop in New York City in the mid 70s is potentially great material. But this was a disappointment for me. Although pilot episodes are difficult, they have to lay out a scene and several main characters, they could come around, and I'll give it a chance. I didn't like
Boardwalk Empire from the start either.
This review was pretty scathing, notable because of the source. I pretty much agree:
Richard Hell Reviews HBO’s Vinyl
(I suppose I need to note, I know Richard Hell; Richard Hell is an acquaintance of mine. James Jagger, you're no Richard Hell.)
eta: forgot to mention, Ray Romano is very good too, I hope his character gets more play as the story goes on.
Who knows? Maybe, you were kidnapped, tied up, taken away and held for ransom.
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago
Oh yeah…