Posted in Television

HBO’s Luck canceled after third horse dies

   March 14, 2012

Man, when are David Milch fans going to catch a break? First, the guy’s masterwork, HBO’s complex and profane Deadwood, was axed in its prime. Then, his follow-up series, the bizarre yet underrated John From Cincinnati, left audiences and critics so perplexed that HBO washed its hands of it after just ten episodes. Finally, things were looking up when Milch’s enthralling new horse-racing drama Luck was recently renewed for a second season, but now that’s not going to happen either. On Tuesday, production of the show resulted in another horse fatality — the third since the series started filming — and today, HBO, Milch and executive producer Michael Mann have announced that they’re going to call it quits.

What a sad end to a quality show that looked like it was going to have a healthy multi-year run. Admittedly, it’s hard to complain about the decision. Accidents happen, but losing three horses in just over a year (season two had just begun filming) seems excessive. It’s crazy they couldn’t come up with a safe way to film the horse races, but nobody wants to see horse after horse euthanized for the sake of a TV show. The decision was quite likely the correct one. Still, I can’t help but to feel a little bummed out that yet another Milch show has been cut down early.

One thing’s for sure: Jason Gedrick is motherfuckin’ the whole universe right now.

Author: Robert Brian Taylor

Robert Brian Taylor is a writer and journalist living in Pittsburgh, PA. Throughout his career, his work has appeared in an eclectic combination of newspapers, magazines, books and websites. He wrote the short film "Uninvited Guests," which screened at the Oaks Theater as part of the 2019 Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project. His fiction has been featured at Shotgun Honey, and his short-film script "Dig" was named an official selection of the 2017 Carnegie Screenwriters Script and Screen Festival. He is an editor and writer for Collider and contributes regularly to Mt. Lebanon Magazine. Taylor also often writes and podcasts about film and TV at his own site, Cult Spark. You can find him online at rbtwrites.com and on Twitter @robertbtaylor.

2 thoughts on “HBO’s Luck canceled after third horse dies”

  1. This series was actually one of the worst that HBO had put out recently. It had a great cast, but the premise was bad. I realize that the actual horse racing was part of the show, but it really was secondary to the characters. No offense, no one cares about horse racing anymore. At least not enough to carry a show. That is just my opinion of course. The cast was really quite good but the premise, the reason to watch the show was crap. Sorry Bob, not gonna miss this one!

    1. But like you said, Jason, it was more about the characters than it was the racing. And there was a solid handful of really strong characters here (especially the four gamblers). The show took a bit of time to get going, but I thought the final third of the season was pretty great. And the series finale was spectacular.

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