TV Series
Lucky means having luck. It may also refer to:
7 episodes · Ended
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| S1 |
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The ending is good because there are a lot of questions open, what happen with the money? how bad is Lucky hurt? will she trust John again?, its all sad because at the end Lucky loses him right as they finally stop lying to each other.
This episode was a fun one, specially if you root for Lucky and the cast keeps every scene moving forward even when the coincidences pile up and get a little annoying, but I need the next episodes to stop being so gentle with Lucky, because if this show wants people to stay hooked it needs to truts more on her tallent to save her sometimes and her mistakes to actually cost her something the rest of the time, otherwise the whole thing risks feeling like a story that only lets its lead win.
Lucky, a mini series that is ok for the most part, nothing really extraordinary, also have to consider this is first time Anya Taylor is the main character and also produce the series, she is a great actress and Lucky turn out really good. For the most part it just works in these first two episodes because it makes her look capable, dangerous and scared all at once, but the show already leans on lucky timing more than it should to keep her free, thats the entire thing about it, like when is she going to run out of luck but is it really luck or that she is just that capable?.
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Episode 4 has been the best one so far because it finally makes Cary easier to understand, a guy who at first the series paint as greedy but his motives where bigger, he knows he screw up but he is right about there was no turning point. Cary says Priscilla pushed him into taking the ten million dollars by making it sound like Lucky was next if he refused and he believed running the deal himself was the only way to keep her alive. At first I get why he did it, considering before all this he and Lucky were living this regular 9 to 5 life, no luxury, just them invole working couple but along the line something must have scare the shit out of him to accept and get the money for his mother and Wayne, yes Lucky ratting them out had to do with it too. A the time the best thing he came up with was to drugg her, left her alone and made the call on her whole life without asking her once, pretty stupid, he never trusted her with the truth, but he still wanted her to believe it all came from love. Lucky is right to say that is not how trust works as his reason explains the betrayal, it does not erase it and that is why the reunion works better than some quick sorry before they run off together. Lucky wants the money and she wants answers, but she still cannot decide if anything out of his mouth is worth believing. The episode never picks a side on that which is why his final moments actually felt sad instead of redemptive, they never had the time to decide or pick things back up.
Lucky has to sit with the fact that Cary was not the only one keeping something huge from this marriage. I like that the episode does not let her stand above him like she is the only one who got betrayed here. The flashback shows she cut a deal with Billie Rand to help take Priscilla down, she only agreed after demanding full immunity for John and Cary, but Rand arrested John anyway once he decided the guy was too involved to protect. That explains why Lucky feels used and why she keeps running back to her father now and it also means Cary spent years never knowing his own wife helped the FBI build the case against his mother, and once he gets the knews he could even probably think Lucky rat them out for the money and nothing else. Both of them made choices that changed the other persons entire life and then stayed quiet because the truth would force them to face the damage that they had no explanation for, thats the result of not thinking about the consequences if something went wrong before action, which is what makes their anger at each other feel some what reasonable and none of the them is right, makes you think if Cary drugging her and abandoning her in real danger is still worse than her keeping quiet about Rand, but it explains why he believed Priscilla so easily when she said Lucky had turned on the family. Their marriage had real love in it but also secrets that kept getting more dangerous every time one of them decided silence as protection and they only start talking straight once there is almost no time left and way more damage has been made, specially the trust they had each other.
When Cary decides not to hand Priscilla the money is the first part of his story that actually convinced me he was done obeying her, even though it comes too late to save the marriage, but then again just beacuse he said it doesnt mean its real, that is what Lucky would think at some point. He shows up planning to give her the cash, sees her laughing with Dutch like nothing is wrong and realizes he destroyed his entire life while she just kept going like always, and what matters is Cary finally seeing how much her fear and pressure have run every decision he has made for years. So he keeps the money, turns it into crypto, goes back for Lucky and later sits under a fake name assuming she will somehow track him down, by the way the crypto story is just plain stupid but lets not get into that part. Those choices prove he wanted Lucky over Priscilla but they also prove he still thought he could fix this by himself without actually talking to her, he never sends her a real explanation, he just hides and waits, which is still him controlling the situation, he is just calling it love this time instead of protection. That is probably why Lucky stays angry even once his story starts making sense because yes she finds him, but only after surviving Priscilla, Dutch, the FBI and her own father all pulling her toward the money first. Consequences, his entire plan was stupid and it shows when it back fires, bechase when he realize how stupid it was him showing up at the casino does not erase any of what he started, it proves he regretted leaving her, not that leaving her was the right call.
The long escape is fun to watch because they had chase after chase, on wheels, on foot, blending in, it felt like the episode knew how to put the foot down when it was needed and inject more action into it and it didnt feel like Lucky got out because it was convinient, in fact this time she lost someone. The FBI has the beach house surrounded, cars and a helicopter and everything, and Cary and Lucky still slip out through the garage, ditch the Bronco under an overpass and grab another car while cops are still combing the block, yeah all that convinient as the previous episodes. Lucky being sharper behind the wheel than everyone chasing her works for a while but got so slipery that made the cops look like ideots although got to give it to Lucky, she was very smart about her moves and knew how to improvise. Then again all this chase at the end felt like it took too much out of the drama of Lucky and Cary figuring out whats their next move was going to be, at some point I really thought they were going to make it. Their talk during the chase still matters because a few shots were fire between them like Cary calling out her loyalty to John and Lucky has to face how fast she still jumps to follow her fathers orders even after Rand blew up the deal that was supposed to protect him. That connects right back to Carys own problem with Priscilla, and both of them keep circling back to a parent who uses love and guilt to keep control, except Cary actually cuts Priscilla off once obeying her costs him too much, while Lucky is still out there chasing money for John. I am not sure she even realizes she is repeating the exact mistake she is angry at Cary for making, this things you only realize once the episode is over and the episode does not need a speech to make that point either, Carys one simple question about why she drops everything the second John calls says it better than anything else during the episode.
Carys death work so well for the episode because not only helps Lucky to escape but also cuts off that streak of luck she had so far where she get away with everything she wanted, there also that they never had the chance to settle things down and this is something I have been wanting from the series until now, some chaos that Lucky couldnt control. When the police close in he starts firing at their vehicles while she drives, and the police returns fire, he manage to hit their tire and the inmediate response I had was like ok here they got away but then their tire got shot too and thats when they crash, and it works great because its not a clean heroic turn, shooting at police makes everything worse and puts more people in danger. Cary finally stopped trying to ship control where or what is Lucky next move, he decides to take the risk with her right there and gives her a shot to get away even though it was pure luck too that he was the only one hurt, lets give this one to the show name, Lucky. There is the final moments where she tells him loving him was not a mistake, but that does not mean everything he did was right either, it just means the love was real even while the trust was wrecked, love is irrational. They never got the time to figure out what their marriage could have become once the truth was finally out and both explain why they did, both actions without measuring the consequences. She can understand why Cary took the money and still hate that he drugged her. Priscilla arriving just in time felt really good, just in time to see her son after the crash gives his death some extra weight because at first the one that gets hits the most is Priscilla who put him at risk at expenses of her actions, since Cary dies after finally refusing to let his mother run his life and Priscilla is left looking at exactly what her control and actions did, thats the moment when it just blow up in her face. The ending is good because there are a lot of questions open, what happen with the money? how bad is Lucky hurt? will she trust John again?, its all sad because at the end Lucky loses him right as they finally stop lying to each other.
#lucky, #tooclosetoseeit, #television, #tvseries, #episodereview, #tvreview, #crime, #drama, #thriller, #carrie, #priscilla, #johnarmstrong, #billyrand, #dutch, #fbi, #betrayal, #marriage, #trust, #family, #escape, #carchase, #cryptocurrency, #grief, #redemption, #review
Rating: 75/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
Read the Room is the third episode of Lucky, and this is the one where I started worrying the show loves its main character a little too much for its own good, just too much convinient luck. I was also wondering when they were going to put out her official name and it turns out to be Luciana, she can talk her way out of almost anything, and this episode goes so hard on it that staying alive starts to feel less like skill and more like the universe just clearing a path for her every single time she needs one, not saying that I didnt like the episode but it takes out from it. Her dad John spent her whole childhood training her to read a room and that is exactly why the flashbacks work, they explain how she can slide into some random kids birthday party and pass herself off like she belongs there. My issue is this one stop just hands her everything on her checklist, clean clothes, cash, a car and no one at that party notice or caught her, yeah its a great oportunity but what are the odds every single person was at the backyard and not even one cleaning lady at sight considering this is a part of wealthy people. Its still fun to watch, Anya Taylor Joy sells a lot of that confidence, but there is a real difference between a con artist creating her own opening and a story just handing her a full escape kit. This scene is way closer to the perfect escape kit for me than just pure skills, in real life we call it luck although others call it knowing when to pull the trigger and sometimes its a theory hard to prove or disprove. I want her to be smart, but the show keeps stacking careless easy marks in front of her until any real tension just disappears, at some point the show has to let her fail because right now her confidence feels protected by whoever is writing her checklist, not earned by her.
There are more simple and rough momenets that just work a lot better for me because Lucky cannot control what she is watching this time, she is stuck hiding on a property tied to her mother in law while Dutch is just beating the hell out of a man who does not have any answers everyone wants out of him, and his cooperation getting him nowhere is what makes that scene feel dangerous in a way the birthday party never felt like, its the total opposite because at the party she was in control and now she is a second away from getting caught. Lucky is scared at the stables, actually scared and I like that the show lets her sit in that fear instead of calmly handling everything thrown at her, but then her phone call with John right after matters too, he talks her down from panic in seconds, making me ask myself how did he train her so well al this time that even when she is in total panic mode far away from him all she needed what her father voice, but he is also the same guy who taught a little kid how to steal cash from distracted parents at a birthday party and that is a contradiction more interesting because how can she be so calm? is it just the fact that one situation can get you killed and the other to jail? hhmmm the show makes it hard to know if in fact her talent is just black and white instead of gray areas. She is using his lessons to survive, but those same lessons are the reason she keeps using innocent people without thinking twice. I also felt like the episode never stops to make excuses for that either, she is easy to root for, but nobody is trying to sell her as some innocent victim here, and thats a smart choice on the shows part, this story and the main character are really a roller coster.
The hunt for Cary picks up real speed, faster than I expected thanks to the escape kit I mention before, and I think cramming this much movement into one chapter is because this whole season only gets seven episodes total, aside that this is a mini series so they dont have much time. Some of that speed works and some feels like another shortcut, the same problem as before, but there is one scene in the back half that completely earns itself, a con she runs on a guy connected to a rental property. Her plan here is actually clever, she plays drunk to get close to him, gets her hands on his phone long enough to send herself information about his wife, then uses that leverage to force his help without ever raising her voice, and it is one of the best scenes in the whole damn episode because Lucky is creating her advantage instead of stumbling into it, I know it might sound as a fantasy but at this point in time I have come to realize this is just a story of someone so damn lucky that is absurd so just go with it and decide if you enjoy someone been that Lucky. She reads exactly what kind of guy he is, lets him think he is in control, then flips the whole situation on him, and Anya Taylor Joy is fantastic in this moment, looking unsteady for a second before snapping into someone completely locked in, although this is too damn predictable. I wanted way more scenes built like this one, where her skill actually explains the result instead of convenient timing, because the birthday party and a couple other scenes during this episode just go too hard on lucky breaks, while this rental scene shows exactly why Lucky is dangerous when she just go for it, and it seems like her monther in law and Dutch also knows this, makes me wonder if Lucky did some jobs for them although there is a scene with John where she clearly tells him she wants nothing of it.
[Source](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/lucky/umc.cmc.5qo7t3nngb2vj0m9dxkwebw1o)
[Source](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/lucky/umc.cmc.5qo7t3nngb2vj0m9dxkwebw1o)This episode turn things way better for me because this episode pulls Lucky toward Cary, yeah very convinient but thats the whole thing about this mini series, there is one task at hand and thats get to know why Cary dump her, the husband she has been chasing and closing that gap this early feels like the right call because the personal betrayal here is more interesting than another hour of address chasing or arguing who is going to die because there is 10 million missing. Cary left with a pile of money and built himself a comfortable life somewhere quiet while Lucky spent all of this time running, stealing and eating actual shit just to survive, and everything she finds tells her he did not vanish because he got scared and confused, he planned this out for himself, and I wonder if Cary is going to be able to talk her down and get Lucky on his side again, she is mad AF so its going to be interesting. This is why John warns her at one point that she is thinking with anger instead of her head and he is totally right about it, even though its a strange piece of advice coming from the same guy who helped build the criminal life she is stuck inside, somewhere down the line she got into the family business or became John partner. Lucky has every reason to be furious, but rushing toward kicking the hell out of Cary wont get her answers, so far she has not show any sadness as a wife who gets dump the way he did, any other woman must feel terrible but Lucky is so calculative that she shows nothing, reason why I think episode 4 is going to show some of those feelings towards what Cary did to her. Feelings about Cary mess with her training, this is where I think the episode finally hands her a problem that her dads whole rulebook does not have an answer for.
I got to say it was a good episode but only when you take out the obvious and look more into the inner problems of Lucky. Agent Rand is pulling on her thread, Priscilla can feel the walls closing in, and Wayne has his people looking too, so next week should be a mess, except this show has already shown how fast it clears a path when Lucky needs refuling her luck and I dont want another convenient distraction letting everyone off the hook before the hard conversation happens, Wayne did told Priscilla "I found your boy" so that adds a lot of sauce because considering how convinient and predictable the show is, Cary and Lucky might join again to escape Wayne's guys. There is enough real personal conflict now for the show to slow down and let Lucky sit with whatever Cary says, and reckon with the fact that Priscilla and John have both spent years making choices for their kids without asking what they wanted, Priscilla says she is protecting her son but roles with very cruel and dangerous people like Dutch and Wayne, and John wants his daughter safe but his own training is why she survives by lying and stealing every day of her life, so why not lie to her father too?!. Those choices give this whole thing something stronger than a standard crime chase, closer to watching two parents convince themselves they did right while the damage piles up around and against their kids. This episode was a fun one, specially if you root for Lucky and the cast keeps every scene moving forward even when the coincidences pile up and get a little annoying, but I need the next episodes to stop being so gentle with Lucky, because if this show wants people to stay hooked it needs to truts more on her tallent to save her sometimes and her mistakes to actually cost her something the rest of the time, otherwise the whole thing risks feeling like a story that only lets its lead win.
#lucky, #readtheroom, #luckytv, #television, #tvreview, #episodereview, #crime, #thriller, #drama, #mystery, #betrayal, #family, #chase, #survival, #conartist, #anyataylorjoy, #carrie, #priscilla, #john, #dutch, #agentrand, #recap, #streaming, #series, #episode
Rating: 75/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
The other day saw the first two episodes of Lucky, a mini series that is ok for the most part, nothing really extraordinary, also have to consider this is first time Anya Taylor is the main character and also produce the series, she is a great actress and Lucky turn out really good. For the most part it just works in these first two episodes because it makes her look capable, dangerous and scared all at once, but the show already leans on lucky timing more than it should to keep her free, thats the entire thing about it, like when is she going to run out of luck but is it really luck or that she is just that capable?. The opening betrayal scene gives you a real reason to care about her, even though her actual part in taking the casino money was moving cash somebody else had already stolen, not stealing it herself, make things way more dangerous. She wakes up hungover from champagne on the terrace with her husband, no sign of him or the money, and finds out the FBI has the casino surrounded, with no time to figure out if he planned to ditch her from the start or if something happened after he left. Anya Taylor Joy sells the scene so good and even when the first impression is that she has been betrayl and used, she just start moving and reacting so she doenst look hopeless, she looks hurt but she is already working the problem within minutes, reading the room fast. My issue is the casino escape hands her almost everything she needs, restricted areas open up and a driver is right there willing to help just before the FBI reaches the loading area, I know I know this is just TV so that kind of things going to happen, I guess thats the never ending trick of the series. Her ability to lie under pressure makes it easier to buy but the show cannot keep putting a random stranger or a slow agent in exactly the right spot every time. She should make it out because she is better at this than the people chasing her and episode one shows enough skill to support that, but it still leans on a lot of luck too.
The best part of Lucky as a character is that her talent shows up in her choices instead of turning her into someone who can do literally anything, its not like she is reading a manual, she is reacting to problems and situation, going one solution after another, a train of thoughts. Her father John taught her to stay calm, read people and take over a conversation, which is why she can flip between scared and lying so fast. She invents a story about an abusive boyfriend to get the truck driver to help her but jokes on her because the truck driver end up saying he knows she aint runnig from a boyfriend, I wont say he is sleaker but had a better idea of what was going on, she did trick him at first though. Then changes her hair and gets on a bus while the cops search every station around her and those choices show real preparation. The show still pushes the hair change too far though, her face is everywhere on the news and the FBI is checking travel routes, so a different color helping some makes sense, but it should not solve the problem this easily. Lucky never acts proud of herself, for the most part she always look like the victim and never the hunter, every small win just gets her to the next threat and Anya Taylor is good at showing the calculation going on behind all the panic, like she can look about to fall apart while already deciding which lie will work best. I also liked that the truck driver sees through her lie and helps her anyway, proof that not everyone around Lucky is stupid and I want more of that instead of people becoming useful just because the plot needs her to have help.
There is constant action even when Lucky is just lieying to people, so its fun to watch because it never stops, but then the same question comes back, when is she is going to run out of luck?, there is this scene where two big dudes got her on the back of the trunk of their car and she manages to get out and kill them both, I was like who is this girl? thats some serious James Bond type of break out shit. The fight stays believable because it does not make her look stronger than him, he overpowers her until she finds one opening, but the lighter, the flare and the crash all lining up is a lot for one scene, and that is where luck starts feeling like an excuse instead of a real idea behind the show. Episode two handles things better in my opinion, because there is an actual cost attached, people start to get shot and they make a movie on her dad that is in prison, so it starts to look that she got some to loose. After the crash she had to walk the desert and stop at a house where she saves two girls from a rattlesnake, then uses their dead mother to sell her fake abusive husband story to Sylvia the girl's grandmother, which shows how fast she can spot a weak spot and how cold she gets once survival kicks in. I felt bad for Sylvia, she gives Lucky food and shelter only to learn she brought a fugitive next to her grand daughters and Lucky still takes her truck and money on the way out. Everywhere Lucky goes its a desaster and the show makes it very clear, Lucky is a menace and should not turn into some harmless victim just because her husband screwed her over, things get more and more interesting as how far she is willing to lie and go just to get what she wants, nobody is safe from her.
[Source](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/lucky/umc.cmc.5qo7t3nngb2vj0m9dxkwebw1o)
[Source](https://tv.apple.com/us/show/lucky/umc.cmc.5qo7t3nngb2vj0m9dxkwebw1o)The mystery around everyone chasing Lucky is what gives these two episodes most of their value outside the escapes themselves. John, Priscilla, Agent Rand, Dutch, Whittaker and her missing husband all want something different and none of them feels fully trustworthy. John is calm about all of it from prison and keeps reminding Lucky that he trained her for exactly this, but that calm also makes me suspicious, since the cash he skimmed belonged to Whittaker and he only got close to it through Priscilla, before pulling his own daughter into getting it back. Timothy Olyphant makes John likable enough that you get why Lucky still listens to him, the guy is a trickster but there is something controlling in how his lessons show up in every decision she makes so its very likely he is going to pull a move on his own daughter if he has to. Priscilla is more direct but not simple either, she wants the money, wants her son back and is scared of what Whittaker does to her if this falls apart, and Annette Bening plays her with a kind of quiet anger, you never see her yelling but you know she is pissed, she just acts on the spot, like when he shoot the guy on the foot just because. Agent Rand does not feel completely lost next to these criminals, she understands Dutch reaching Lucky first could end any chance of the FBI figuring out the entire skimm and she is the one who notices the extra plate at the house when the family hides Lucky from her. Lucky's husband is still the biggest missing piece because his betrayal starts all of this, well at least Lucky been left alone within this entire mess because even if they were together everyone else would be after their asses, its I good thing we still got more misteries to solve.
Episode 1 didnt convience me that much, yes it was cool but it was Episode 2 that got me hooked, mostly because the choices Lucky makes are starting to show what surviving all this is doing to her. The pace stays quick without making the relationships feel pointless and both episodes give you enough of the crime to follow while holding back the truth about her husband and the money. The last escape, Lucky hiding in the back of Dutchs truck, works so good the moment you realize she uses his own confidence against him, but it only works because he never checks the one spot right next to him since he is on the go too because the sirens sound. I can let that slide once since Lucky is out of safer options like she is always going to pull this crazy movies nobody else would think about, but I am not going to accept five more episodes of everyone missing her by and been dumb enough to not catch her or block her as she does her next move. The show has already shown she learned from John and can think fast under pressure, so let that do the work instead of luck aspect. The cast doest a great job all around as carries the uncertainty very well, almost every calm conversation feels like somebody is holding something back and Anya Taylor keeps Lucky worth watching even when the plot gets too convenient at times, Im not going to pretend this is the best tv show of the moment but its a good one to kill some time while you wait for something bigger, say you got nothing to watch on a day of the week because your favorite show plays the next day. These episodes are not perfect but they move fast enough and keep you entertain, give Lucky a real personality and leave enough doubt around her husband and John that I want to see where this goes next. My main issue with it remains, Lucky can be lucky since that is part of who she is but this show will be a lot better once she starts earning her escapes instead of getting handed one every time.
iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GAbT5qCTXR8" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">
#lucky, #television, #series, #review, #recap, #thriller, #crime, #heist, #apple, #anya, #betrayal, #escape, #mystery, #chase, #conartist, #fbi, #mob, #danger, #suspense, #drama, #priscilla, #john, #husband, #dutch, #whitaker
Rating: 75/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
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