Bad Luck

20 March 2012

I tend to keep up with "hour-long dramas" and mini-series from the ol' country...

...this makes me kinda sad that I do.

The best television I have ever seen ...got cancelled ...on the day I discovered it.

I know, best television ever is a tall order ...but I´ve never watched anything on TV so non-derivative. I don´t think there has been anything like it and, since swearing-off any cop shows or doctor shows quite a while back, my list and your list could differ dramatically.

Dramatically is the thing. Just when you think that every sub-culture has been explored, along comes HBO's Luck. The last of the first season's 9 episodes will air next week. It was renewed for second season of 10 episodes ...but got cancelled with the consent of its creator due to some tragic events.

I´m no trackhound and have never been ...but I´ve known a few and have tagged along into that life (I even hit the trifecta at Laurel one day while hangin' with guys just like in this show.) That was quite a while ago but, even then, you could see the creeping decline of "the toughest sport played outdoors." Tracks were emptying and those players and spectators that remained were not the stuff of Hollywood anymore.

In its moribund state, the complicated skeleton of horse racing was and is increasingly more and more visible under its hide. The animal aspect remains intact as essential, the last thing to go. Without love for equines, you can´t have a horse race of any regard at the last remaining tracks ...even the ones that hold onto racing by nothing more than the permission from State legislatures to operate casino gambling within their confines as long as the ponies run. Veterinarians and trainers and life-time stablehands perform their tasks as in the day of Seabiscuit and Man of War.

That does not mean that today´s champions do not meet tomorrow's cruel fate of euthanasia after destroying themselves in the effort to win or the ignominy of the glue factory after succeeding. They do.

There´s no doubt about the next layers of the Sport of Kings onion, either. Ownership of would-be champion horses is expensive and dominated by those of great wealth ...both well- and ill-gotten. As with any exorbitantly priced item, ownership and insurance claims can be disputed with all the grand drama that life and literature can offer.

Other layers reveal the daily torture of the human athletes and their efforts to "make weight" with all the demands of a leggy supermodel.

Near the core of the slowly rotting onion are the trackhounds themselves, once the raison d'etre of the whole show ...now largely superfluous. For a track with a casino, no one really cares if horseracing fans even show up. As long as the horses run, the profitable indoor casinos are allowed by State law ...and tracks troubled by the poor profitabilty of maintaining large, lovely landscaped grounds with almost no attendance will seek to obtain those casinos like a drowning man seeks gulps of air.

Horseracing today is a far cry from the classic Hollywood description of rich and poor rubbing shoulders in racetracks without television screens in which everyone needed to be outdoors in the sun and shade to see the running. The same era's cinema and photography document the golden ages of baseball and football ...and their corruption into the TV and skybox-era and away from the days that businessmen and schoolboys both skipped-out from their responsibilities to enjoy an afternoon´s respite from the grind.

Add the current state of the US economy ...very much the gorilla-in-the-room in this very present day drama ...and you´ve got something so incredibly fresh and deep and unexplored within the long-form TV drama that you´d have to bet that this series, with its glorious casting headed up by Dustin Hoffman would be in for a long, long run.

Tragically, although under more than strict animal welfare standards, three horses have died during less than 2 season's production. That was more than HBO and the series' horse-loving creator could bear. The two parties amicably agreed to cease production.

That is also almost more than I can bear, too. Horseracing is first and formost about the magnificent animals for me. Pari-mutuel betting is a sucker's bet as far as gambling goes. But no table games equal horseracing on any measurable scale of human drama.

What a motherlode of potential drama and theater across species. What masterful scripting and cinematograpy. What a metaphor for the decline and disapearing glory of the past and how it hangs onto today by whatever means.

The ninth race is next week (we might hope to eventually see the few episodes already filmed from the 2nd season ...but don´t bet on it) ...after that, you can tear-up your tickets and toss them to the grimy floor and make your way to the exits.