As something of a poker fan, and a reader of gambling literature, i was quite looking forward to the show.
I was, however, rather underwhelmed. I thought it just tried too hard to be slick and tough, and i was never really convinced by the whole plot-line. I’ll probably give it another go, but if it doesn’t improve then it won’t make the weekly rotation.
Anyone else watch it? What did you think?
I watched it twice and still didn’t get all the alliances and plotlines.
But then, I’d been drinking.
‘Underwhelmed’ is the word that came to mind for me as well. The highlight of the show for me was the realization that my wife thought Michael Madsen and Tom Sizemore were the same perso, arguing to the point that I had to pull up their respective bios on imdb.com to prove her wrong. Boy Madsen looks like he’s piled up some mileage, eh?
I thought it was a comic masterpiece, regardless of whether the people who made it were in on the joke.
On a poker message board I post to, there’s a much larger discussion of it here. There are a few good jokes in the thread (everyone hates the show, naturally), so it might be worth reading. Maybe.
I’d have watched it, if only ESPN had spent any time or money promoting it.
It was on last night? Who knew?
:rolleyes:, Entertainment and SPN.
Well, maybe it’s worth watching for the unintentional comic value. But seriously, i was hoping that the show would actually be about poker, rather than a run-of-the-mill Vegas mob show where the characters happen to be poker players.
Or maybe not.
When people start criticizing a show by describing it as “gay,” i tend to assume that i’m in the presence of a bunch of bigots, or a bunch of 14 year olds. Either way, i’m not that interested in hearing what they have to say on the matter. And half of them seemed more concerned with “the whore in the bathroom,” and with insulting each other’s mothers, than with the show itself.
OK, sobered up now.
What I got of it I thought was pretty entertaining but not in the way the creators intended. I think poker players are going to make fun of it because of how poorly it’s portraying poker (another board I post to already has about 16 threads going on various aspects of how bad the poker is represented). Which isn’t going to stop any of them from watching it, if for no other reason than to make fun of it. Non-players might get more caught up in the double- and triple-crossing aspects.
I have this feeling that I’ve already figured out what the big final plot twist is going to be. Since it’s speculation I won’t spoilertag it. I think, with all the emphasis on “The Matador cheated me” from all the characters, it’s going to turn out that he never cheated anyone and that the ringleader guy of the Mod Squad of Poker is going to turn out to be the real cheat. At some point the Mod Squad is going to flip on him, but behind the scenes and we’ll only find out about it in flashback as he’s being led away broke and possibly in handcuffs.