VINYL Comes to Blu-ray

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'Vinyl - The Complete First Season' on Blogcritics.

HBO’s new drama is Vinyl, which only recently completed its freshman run, will soon be available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital HD. Created by Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rich Cohen, Vinyl is set in the New York City music industry of the 1970s, and although lots of familiar names are dropped, the main characters are fictional. With deservedly mixed reviews, it isn’t HBO’s strongest entry, but I found it worth watching just the same.

At the center of Vinyl is Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale,Ant-Man, Nurse Jackie), an exec trying to sell his struggling company. Richie once had a real love of music, as viewers get to see in flashbacks peppered throughout the installment, but now he’s older and settled. Married to Devon (Olivia Wilde, Rush, House), Richie seems ready to get away from the chaos and cacophony. Were he able to get back to what he loved about the art form, he might stick around, but surrounded by business crap, he’s ready to be done. If he can just make one last deal to get himself out.

Surrounding Richie is a delightful cast. Among those performers joining Bobby at the office are Ray Romano (Parenthood), Max Casella (Inside Llewyn Davis), P.J. Byrne (The Wolf of Wall Street), and Juno Temple (Maleficent). With this ensemble, I would watch just about any series they choose to do.

Despite this, though, like Winter and Scorsese’s last HBO show, Boardwalk Empire, Vinyl starts slow. Really slow. After hour one, I started distractedly playing games on my phone. I feel bad that I wasn’t giving the show my full attention, but it doesn’t seem like anything very interesting is happening, and that is disappointing, considering everything the series has going for it. Richie is boring and the flashbacks don’t really add anything to the present-day storyline, other than to flesh Richie out a bit. It feels tired.

Thankfully, by hour two, things really take a turn. Part of it is Andrew Dice Clay’s (Entourage, Blue Jasmine) character and the events surrounding him. But part of it is that who Richie truly is comes to the surface.

Richie isn’t the bland, typical personality one thinks he is at first. We see him doing drugs and lying to his wife, and it’s easy to pigeonhole him as just another blowhard in a crazy world who puts himself first and gives into his passions. Except, he’s not, and once that is realized, Vinyl comes to life. Once we’re able to see that Richie really does love Devon and is trying to do right by her; once we see the pressure he is under and how much he struggles to cope with it; that’s when the series becomes unique and fresh and makes its mark.

Though, it remains uneven throughout the 10 episodes, never hitting the potential established in the double-length pilot. I kept wanting Vinyl to be something better than it is, do something more. It’s good, but it’s not as great as it could be. Maybe we’ll get to see it reach the peak in season two.

The argument for going HD on this one is how dark many of the scenes are. Set in clubs and nighttime streets, you’ll want to get the best picture quality to see the layers of grey and what’s happening in the shadows. Also, with some great music, it’s worth it to make the best use of the soundtrack. So, as always, I recommend choosing Blu-ray or Digital HD over standard.

The extras are sadly few. We do get an extended version of “Making Vinyl: Recreating the ’70s,” which is appreciated, though mostly seen before if you’re a frequent watcher of the network. We also get the “Inside the Episode” bits that HBO now regularly features as part of their broadcasts. Besides collecting material already released, the only thing new on the discs are audio commentaries. Thankfully, Cannavale, Wilde, Winter, and others participate, so they are worth listening to. Still, I’m hoping season two provides a bit more, this release basically hitting the minimum on bonus features, which far too many seasons do these days.

Vinyl: The Complete First Season is available now for digital download and will be released on disc June 7, 2016.

VINYL Not as Worn as First Appears

Article first published as VINYL Review on Seat42F.

HBO’s newest drama is VINYL, which premiered its two-hour pilot last night. Set in 1970s New York, the series is about the music industry and a particular era of rock ‘n’ roll music. While the main characters are fictional, the band names and music are mostly real. Created by Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter, Mick Jagger, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rich Cohen, its bona fides are legit.

At the center of VINYL is Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale, Ant-Man, Nurse Jackie), an exec trying to sell his struggling company. Richie once had a real love of music, as viewers get to see in flashbacks peppered throughout the installment, but now he’s older and settled. Married to Devon (Olivia Wilde, Rush, House), Richie seems ready to get away from the chaos and cacophony. Were he able to get back to what he loved about the art form, he might stick around, but surrounded by business crap, he’s ready to be done. If he can just make one last deal to get himself out.

Surrounding Richie is a delightful cast. Among those performers joining Bobby at the office are Ray Romano (Parenthood), Max Casella (Inside Llewyn Davis), P.J. Byrne (The Wolf of Wall Street), and Juno Temple (Maleficent). With this ensemble, I would watch just about any series they choose to do.

Despite this, though, like Winter and Scorses’s last HBO show, Boardwalk Empire, VINYL starts slow. Really slow. After hour one, I started distractedly playing games on my phone. I feel bad that I wasn’t giving the show my full attention, but it doesn’t seem like anything very interesting is happening, and that is disappointing, considering everything the series has going for it. Richie is boring and the flashbacks don’t really add anything to the present-day storyline, other than to flesh Richie out a bit. It feels tired.

However, late in the second hour, things really take a turn. Part of it is Andrew Dice Clay’s (Entourage, Blue Jasmine) character and the events surrounding him. But part of it is that who Richie truly is comes to the surface.

Richie isn’t the bland, typical personality one thinks he is at first. We see him doing drugs and lying to his wife, and it’s easy to pigeonhole him as just another blowhard in a crazy world who puts himself first and gives into his passions. Except, he’s not, and once that is realized, VINYL comes to life. Once we’re able to see that Richie really does love Devon and is trying to do right by her; once we see the pressure he is under and how much he struggles to cope with it; that’s when the series becomes unique and fresh and makes its mark.

I find myself wondering if there is anything VINYL could have done to hook viewers in sooner. I mean, the music is great from the start, and that is what first interests me, before the story starts to drag. Some of the supporting characters are also intriguing, but aren’t in it as much as Richie, and so get forgotten between scenes. But could the audience have understood Richie and his world without getting all the set up first, even if the set up didn’t play out as entertaining as it should have?

In the end, I have a hard time judging VINYL harshly, and actually want to go back and re-watch it more closely. By the credits of the premiere, I am fully on board with VINYL. It just takes awhile to get there. Had the show done a traditional single-hour kick off, it could easily have gotten skipped by me. But with the two-hour format, the program does its job and proves itself. If you tuned out early, go back and give it another chance. It’s worth it.

VINYL airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

INTELLIGENCE Not Dumb

Article first published as INTELLIGENCE Review on Seat42F.

INTELLIGENCE premieres tonight. Sort of like a more serious version of NBC’s Chuck, the series stars Josh Holloway (Lost) as Gabriel Vaughn, an elite soldier who is implanted with a technologically advanced computer chip. This gives Gabriel access to the systems of U.S. government intelligence, as well as allows him to envision 3D environments where he can figure out a case, like an interactive puzzle.

I really, really liked Chuck and don’t feel like it needs a remake, so recently having gone off the air. Luckily, INTELLIGENCE isn’t exactly the same story. Chuck is humorous and cheeky, while INTELLIGENCE takes a darker tack, with situations that feel much more dangerous, and main characters doing jobs that feel a bit more realistic. INTELLIGENCE has more special effects, which are fantastic, by the way. Yet, it lacks the charm that made Chuck so good.

Counting against the show, it is on CBS, which means that, most likely, INTELLIGENCE will be a procedural. Cases-of-the-week are boring, delivering us the same installments over and over again. The “Pilot” isn’t a simple adventure, easily solved, and there are hints at longer arcs in the initial hour, so I hope it will be at least as serial as Person of Interest, which stretches itself a bit, though doesn’t leave the formula behind as much as, say, The Good Wife. Still, there is hope that this could be a special program, eventually, if it is developed correctly.

Holloway is understated as Gabriel. While he did the cocky, brash thing well on Lost, and that is what is called for here again, he tones it back a smidgen, setting the role apart from his previous. I do wish he had a bit more attitude, though, as that could make him pop a bit more.

In the “Pilot,” Gabriel is assigned a protector, Secret Service Agent Riley Neil (Meghan Ory, Once Upon A Time). Apparently, she’s like a female version of him, super smart and super tough, able to keep tabs on her reckless charge, while protecting him from the trouble that he gets himself into.

Riley and Gabriel are a familiar type of pairing. One male, one female, both straight and good looking. They are similar in their abilities and resolve, like other crime-solving duos on television, and have a chemistry that is entertaining and appealing. Viewers will likely tune in or not on the strength of these leads and their interactions together. Holloway and Ory don’t really do anything groundbreaking with the parts, but they serve their purpose well enough.

What’s different in INTELLIGENCE than in other similar shows is that there is no romance set up between Riley and Gabriel, at least not yet. Gabriel is married, and although his wife may be dead or a traitor, he hopes for the best, and that makes him unavailable at this time. That means there isn’t a flirty relationship set up yet, and if the series seeks to avoid being compared to every other show in the genre, let’s hope it stays that way. I like the way they relate to one another as it stands now.

I also like that the main cast of INTELLIGENCE isn’t just a group of people solving the cases assigned. Marg Helgenberger (CSI) does star as Lillian Strand, Riley and Gabriel’s boss, but the other two main characters, Shenendoah Cassidy (John Billingsley, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Nelson Cassidy (P.J. Byrne, The Legend of Korra), worked on a specific project, are not part of a predictable team. Shenendoah developed the chip, then was dismissed from the agency. Nelson is his son, jealous of the attention and affection Shenendoah has for Gabriel.

It’s this unique cast of players, not familiar stereotypes, that give me the best hope for INTELLIGENCE in the long run. The plot of the “Pilot” is fantastic, unto itself, with some great twists, but that’s just set up; it isn’t a true measure of how the series will do over the course of several years. With this ensemble, though, it may just be something to keep an eye on.

INTELLIGENCE premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.