It's easy to want to love HBO’s “Vinyl”; it comes from the great Terence Winter, who created and oversaw – in concert with HBO and Martin Scorsese – all five seasons of the beloved “Boardwalk Empire”.
But the new series, set in the New York music industry of 1973, feels at times like something someone found at the bottom of a remainder bin.
Four hours into “Vinyl,” I’m not yet finding characters I love as much as Richard Harrow, Arnold Rothstein, Nelson Van Alden, Angela Darmody, Chalky White or the Brothers Thompson. Or for that matter Gyp Rosetti, the wonderfully ill-tempered gangster embodied by “Vinyl” star Bobby Cannavale.
Cannavale’s “Vinyl” character is record-label president Richie Finestra. Hegets the most screen time and is thus far the most problematic component of the series. Finestra’s increasing reliance on cocaine is one of this series’ most tired rock-industry clichés (and nowhere near as compelling as Dr. Thackery’s drug abuse on “The Knick”), and his treatment of his partners and underlings is rarely not off-putting.
Ray Romano, so entertaining in his long-running supporting part on NBC’s “Parenthood,” seems unusually out-at-sea comedically. The most likeable “Vinyl” character so far is ambitious secretary Jamie Vine (Juno Temple), but her character is also something of a period-piece feminist trope that was handled with more nuance and wit via Peggy Olsen over on “Mad Men.”
The pilot, directed by Scorsese, lingers “Treme”-like and (for me) too long on musical numbers, often played by what are essentially cover bands impersonating rock greats. I see some critics regard these musical interludes as some of the series’ best features, but I just craved more forward motion among the project’s plot and characters.
It’s important to note, though, that the series does make terrific and copious use of period recordings by an army of original artists, from David Bowie and the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger had a hand in the creation of “Vinyl”) to Donny Osmond and The Carpenters.
I’ll continue to spin “Vinyl” mostly because Winter’s prior work (he’s also a “Sopranos” alumnus) demands attention, but I do hope the series hits fewer sour notes as it continues its tour of pay-cable.
… Vinyl‘s first five episodes reveals a beautifully made, sophisticated-enough antihero drama in the Mad Men or Boardwalk Empire mold, but one hampered by incongruities that keep it from being a true game changer. …
… Vinyl feels less like the next step in TV drama's evolution than a greatest hits collection. Richie Finestra wants to expose something new to the world when the show he's at the center of — particularly in its nearly two-hour pilot episode — is more of a dinosaur rock album. …
... It would be nice to report that Vinyl sustains the momentum Mr. Scorsese establishes in the pilot, but through five episodes, it tends to bog down.... But the show quickly begins giving less time to the music and more to duller, formulaic plot lines including a marital crisis, a murder investigation and a female secretary’s attempts to break the hemp ceiling of the recording business. …
... your reaction will vary on your liking for the kind of people the filmmakers have chosen to focus on. … after watching something like half the season, they strike me as unbearably tiresome and uninteresting. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... “Vinyl” drags in its occasionally predictable, too infrequently surprising premiere and invites viewers down a rough road. It feels authentic; it looks and sounds believable. But the situations and characters in “Vinyl” are overly familiar in this post-antihero, peak TV era. …
… HBO’s flashy and often astonishing new drama “Vinyl” feels like the HBO-iest show the network has ever made.... “Vinyl” is HBO reminding the rest of the TV world that it has the hairiest, sexiest chest in town. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... big, noisy and crazy-brilliant …
... you can’t get no satisfaction from “Vinyl” … I don’t know what the future of rock ’n’ roll is, but if “Vinyl” is the future of dramas, we’re all in trouble. …
... ambitious, riveting, brilliant, addictive, kaleidoscopic, gonzo, cartoonish, kitschy, obvious, indulgent, awkward, and bloated. Created by the heavyweight team of Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Rich Cohen, and Terence Winter, the drama is aurally striking, boldly acted, and smartly written, except when its aurally overdone, artificially acted, and written with too many easy period clichés. …
... Richie is a selfish, cheating, coke-addicted liar and schemer who carelessly ruins lives and careers, when he doesn’t just end them. So why watch this show, set in New York's exploding music world in the early ‘70s? For one, because for all his faults, Richie has an artist's love of and feel for music. While that may not redeem him, it does make him more interesting than your standard corporate goon. …
... Music being such a personal preference, who knows if the show will be a hit for HBO. But creatively it’s a thing of real beauty, attempting to tell stories of people absolutely enamored with music on a life-altering level. …
... a big, messy affair, sometimes mesmerizing, occasionally aggravating, providing a taste of what’s to come while feeling too caught up in stylistic flourishes. All told, this is a huge project that perhaps only HBO could deliver. But so far, the album isn’t quite as good as the liner notes. … despite the overt and intangible dividends associated with a project adorned with so much A-level talent, compared with the standard of prestige HBO dramas, this one plays more like a “B” side. …
9 p.m. Sunday. HBO.
