HBO, Milch, Mann bet big on Luck

David Milch fans, rejoice-- last night, after an extended absence, the Emmy-winning TV writer/producer (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) returned to cable television with his latest creation, Luck, a new HBO series about the thrilling highs and seedy lows of life on and off the racetrack.

The hour-long show, which introduces roughly a dozen characters, boasts an impressive cast that includes Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman as a recently released felon who can't stay away from his beloved Santa Anita racetrack; frequent Milch collaborator Dennis Farina as Hoffman's loyal driver; and a fantastically grizzled Nick Nolte as a veteran horse owner who knows a Kentucky Derby winner when he sees one. And no less than Michael Mann, the director behind such criminally inclined films as Heat and Public Enemies, is part of the gang, too; he helmed the pilot episode and is signed on as executive producer.

Like most HBO shows, Luck drops viewers into the middle of a fully formed world that can take a few episodes to get used to. Trying to decipher the rapid-fire insider talk of trainers, vets, and jockeys can prove challenging, but Mann keeps tightly focused on what's not being said and moves things along with a crisp efficiency. The races are so nail-bitingly unpredictable, and the powerful horses so naturally graceful, that it's easy to understand why a group of down-and-out gamblers would spend their days strategically betting their Social Security checks, and why a rising trainer demands race-day secrecy. To these characters, luck isn't something you find; it's something you manufacture.

They're trying to create lightening inside the bottle, and we can't wait to see where Milch and company take this fascinating story.