Vegas- The Real Thing- Episode 6

The Real Thing episode 6

Ah, Vegas you haven't really changed (or gotten any better).  Each week I tune in hoping that this week will be the one where story and characterization will become important and this show will begin to turn into something more than CSI: The Early Years. But so far, no luck. Hell, even in the early years, Gil Grissom was a much more interesting character than any character on Vegas.

This is the episode where we introduce the drinking game. With 21 episodes ordered, I don't know about you, but a drinking game seems to help the episode go faster and seem less shallow. More points for you if you drink retro cocktails instead of beer or wine during the episode.

Dennis Quaid's characterization of Ralph Lamb hasn't changed. It's still one dimensional. There is no way a drinking game can be modeled around Quaid smiling because he doesn’t smile enough to make the drinking game pay off. Which is really too bad because Quaid has a great smile. It’s a shame that this Ralph Lamb is so one-dimensional with only two emotions, very taciturn and very flustered (when he’s around Katherine). It would be great if Ralph was an actual character that had an array of emotions like regular people but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. This show is all about archetypes and the audience suffers because of it.  

At the top of the show, Ralph and Dixon scare three bandits and Ralph threatens to kill them to keep from doing paperwork and to get them to return the money they stole from various gas stations.

A dentist has an emergency, a cigarette girl with a chipped tooth.  He gives her gas and turns up the cool looking radio.

In the count room, someone might have the flu and the gaming control board shows up to investigate and we find out that someone is making counterfeit gaming chips. Savino is unhappy that the mayor is cracking down and Savino wants a new mayor.

Mrs. Savino is not happy about having to have lunch alone and the implication is that Vinny used to screw around when he should have been spending time with the missus.

Back at the dentist office, the gas wears off and the cigarette girl wakes up but where’s the dentist? Well, this being a crime drama, dead, of course! Drink if you saw that coming.

After the commercial, Ralph and Jack are investigating the dead dentist and we find out the dentist was a bad gambler. His wife was divorcing him because of his jones. The dentist was broke and the wife isn’t interested in the life insurance money because it will only go to pay his debts. Oh, and he was a bad speller to boot. But actor Donal Logue's sister, who we haven't seen since Shawn Ryan's terrific show, Terriers, is very good as the widow.

Savino goes to visit the mayor and interrupts a meeting he is having with the DA and Katherine. Savino is unhappy about the crackdown on the count room. Words like “my kind” are bandied about. Savino threatens the mayor and Katherine reminds him that it’s a felony to do that.  Savino tells Mayor Bennett, ‘when you look back to see where it all went wrong, it’s right here, right now”.

Savino then leaves and goes on a rant about how the mayor has to be replaced. This isn’t likely to happen because the actor playing the mayor is a well-known character actor and the tv audience remembers him from his days as a sympathetic Secret Service agent on The West Wing (and your reviewer remembers him also from his sympathetic sheriff on HBO’s Carnivale) so he isn’t going anywhere. At least for now. The producers may kill him off down the road to pit Savino against Ralph but that doesn’t seem too likely at this point in the story. Drink if you think the story might go there.

There’s a televised mayoral debate in two days and Savino wants to find someone who is sympathetic to his cause to run against Mayor Bennett. This is a good time to take a long drink because televised debates in 1960 were still in their infancy and while the presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon was great theater, mayoral elections didn’t rely on television in Las Vegas. The town was small back then (remember, the mayor only governs everything north of Sahara Avenue – basically downtown, the neighborhoods of Twin Lakes, Hyde Park, Charleston Heights, the Westside and east of downtown, so pressing the flesh is way more important than a television debate).

And this brings up the question of just where is The Savoy located. By all indications in this show, it is located downtown on Fremont Street. But, many of the landmarks around it like the Sahara Sign, the original Stardust sign, would have viewers think it is on the Strip. It can’t be on the Strip if Savino is all up in arms about the Mayor because the Mayor has no power on the Strip because that is the County.)

If you knew that, take another drink before we continue. If you know the Mayor has no control over the Gaming Commission (that would be the governor), take another drink.

Someone is being worked over by being dunked in the toilet to find out what he knows about the fake chips. He’s clueless. Nice looking toilet though.

The dentist’s bookie goes to see Ralph and explain why he didn’t kill the dentist. Seems the dentist paid off his debt of $37,400 last week. The bookie is called Jimmy the Polack. Jack comes into the conversations with some info. Seems the dentist was paying $165 to a property rental company for a property not his office. Ralph thinks the dentist may have had a chippy on the side.

Savino is talking up a potential mayoral candidate. Mr. Brady who really likes the Savoy. Brady doesn’t gamble, he runs a dry cleaning business out on East Bonanza and Charleston.
Take a long drink if you know those two streets are east/west thoroughfares and don’t cross. Grrrr.

Savino wants to help Brady win the election. He says that Mayor Bennett is crooked.  Savino points out that the population is now close to 75,000 (off by about 25,000 in 1960) and that people have come from all over the country to live in Vegas but that Bennett doesn’t respect that and wants to run the newcomers out of town. Which makes no sense because we have never seen Bennett act this way. Most mayors like to see their city grow and Bennett is no exception.

Savino seems to understand the power of television and how it can turn the election around for Brady. “Bennett is the past, we’re the future” and Brady knows that he needs Savino as much as Savino needs him.

Mrs. Savino doesn’t trust Vincent around all the good looking women and thinks he’s playing around. Vincent finally copes to the mayor problem and enlists the misuss' help in getting Brady ready for the debate, “you just have to find it or buy it”.

We find out that Mrs. Savino’s father is a county commissioner back in Chicago. Mrs. Savino offers to chat up the women voters who didn’t vote for Bennett the last time.

Ralph and Jack visit the dentist’s other property. This is a very disjointed episode in that the crime of the week seems to have no relation to the other story line until Ralph and Jack discover that the dentist was the one making the fake chips. Take a drink if you saw that coming.

Back from commercial, we find Dixon checking out the fake chips. Ralph thinks Savino knew the dentist was passing fake chips and goes to talk to Vince taking Jack with him. They question Vince, who says he is doing his own investigation. The Lamb brothers tell him that the dentist was the faker and wonder if Savino ordered him killed. Savino denies that. Savino asks Ralph for help in a roundabout way. Savino gives Ralph a name, wait for it, and rolls on the poor guy who was getting the toilet dunk. Drink if you saw that coming.

The toilet dunker doesn’t know the dentist but down at the Monte Carlo there was talk of dentist cement being used in fake chips.

Over at the pre-debate gathering, the Mayor and Katherine notice that Brady is dressing much better than he was just a few days ago and has women gathered around him. The Savinos talk about how difficult it is going to be to get Brady ready to take on Bennett.

Ralph and Dixon investigate a lead and find, wait for it, a lead. Drink.

They find a dead body. Drink. The dental cement is missing. Drink.

Ralph hasn’t smiled in at least a half hour. Drink.

Jack offers to talk to Mia Rizzo. Drink. Yes, it’s a drinking game built around predictability.

A couple of suits hijack a truck filled with televisions. Drink. The suits have been tasked with dropping free tvs to women who don’t have them.

Katherine meets Mrs. Savino at the beauty parlor. They discuss JFK and how his good looks will help him win the campaign. One of the suits drops off one of the tvs “courtesy of Mr. Brady so you can watch him mop the floor with Mayor Bennett”. Hopefully, Katherine is wary.

Jack and Mia are going through the records. There is some actual chemistry between the two.

Ralph and Savino meet. Ralph tells him about the missing dental cement and that there is likely to be a run on fake chips. Jack finds the smoking gun in Mia’s records and how the dentist cashed in his winning chips. They go to find the cashier.

Savino decides to swap out the chips. A new delivery of chips arrives. Ralph stops Savino from swapping the chips. (Still with us?) They go running for the safe and discover the two guards tied up and no chips.

The guards give Ralph details about the delivery guy. Savino wants the guy dead. He and Ralph are working together. Jack brings the cashier to Ralph and they take her to the Sheriff’s Office. Savino tells Mia to round up anyone who knew the cashier.

The cashier plays dumb. Jack puts forth the evidence. Dixon enters and says the cashier knew the dentist and was a patient. Ralph sits down to talk to the cashier and talk her into staying alive by spilling the story. She does. Ralph doesn’t smile. “It’s safe, it’s easy, no one would get hurt”. But the cashier has a boyfriend, Jessie, who got greedy. He killed the dentist and saw the opportunity for a big score with the fake chips.

At the debate, Mrs. Savino is prepping Brady and using all of JFK’s secrets, make-up, et al so that Brady will look mayoral.

Mayor Bennett obviously didn’t learn anything from watching the Kennedy/Nixon debates and refuses to wear make-up. Katherine approaches Mrs. Savino and they agree to have lunch so that Mrs. Savino can bring Katherine up to speed on all of Brady’s good points that would make him a good mayor.

Meanwhile, Savino finds Jessie before Ralph does. Savino wants his money back and holding Jessie at gun point, they go outside and there is Ralph. There is a show down between Savino holding a gun on Jessie and Ralph holding a rifle on Savino.

Savino and Ralph have a conversation about the law and how there really is no difference between the two of them. Ralph doesn’t buy it and Savino backs off, only slugging Jessie and leaving with his money. Drink if you anticipated this outcome.

At the Savoy, Vince returns the money. They watch the debate and make comments about how sweaty the mayor looks. It’s all about the future, Brady says. The mayor is part of the past. Drink.

Up on the KLAS radio tower, the signal is cut while the Mayor is talking and so the audience only got to see Brady. Drink.

Mayor Bennett, Katherine and Ralph won’t likely take this sitting down. Vince may have won this round but the campaign and the fight has only just begun.

The show gets props for getting KLAS right but that’s about it. Still very superficial story-telling and superficial acting. I keep wishing this show will get meatier but I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. Drink if you agree.

See you next week! Based on the promo, bring more alcohol.

Review of this week's "Vegas"

Good news for Vegas fans--CBS has ordered a full season of episodes.

Vegas 1.3  (Ill)Legitimate

Vegas 1.3

I could get all technical and point out that the 100 year old oak tree in Ralph’s yard isn’t exactly historically correct but hey, I understand the need for the occasional dramatic/artistic license. It was a beautiful tree.

Ralph and Jack go to the Savoy to find Vincent Savino requesting that they arrest a couple of card cheaters. Jack makes eyes at Mia Rizzo (Sarah Jones).

Angelo’s nephew is being sent out under the guise of being the courier for the skim. And we discover that Savino has a new plan for expanding, taking over the Tumbleweed Club and building “ a place twice as good as this one”. He also reveals that he isn’t using Chicago money but once the deal is done, he’ll deliver the new hotel in a neat bow to Angelo.

From there we briefly meet a couple of maids in the laundry room of the Tumbleweed and from there we go to a union meeting and talk of a wildcat strike against the Tumbleweed. Estelle makes an impassioned plea for getting ‘what’s right’. Again, dramatic license because the Culinary Union back in the day was the union to work for in Las Vegas. My mother was a union member for over ten years beginning in 1961. In addition, Al Bramlett was touring the deep South talking to young African-American men and women who were toiling in the cotton fields that life in Las Vegas as a member of the Culinary Union could change their lives dramatically.

As Estelle is walking home (and no, you couldn’t easily walk from downtown Las Vegas to the Westside because of the train tracks), she is killed by a hit and run driver (should I point out that NCIS: Los Angeles had a similar death in the first fifteen minutes of that show an hour earlier?). Jack interviews a couple of Estelle’s friends who spill the beans about the union meeting and that Estelle was the first female shop steward. What what’s that on the effects track, a train whistle and a coyote? Plus that’s a lot of greenery for a desert.

The next day, Savino visits the Tumbleweed and talks to Mert Hays (William Russ) about buying the Tumbleweed. Savino shows him design plans that would turn the Tumbleweed into what looks like the Fremont Hotel. He talks about doing with legit money,not mob money. This paves the way for Savino to go talk to a real banker, Mr. Farwood.  This banker character is based on Parry Thomas, the Mormon banker who with Jerry Mack ran the Bank of Las Vegas. Thomas provided legit money to casino owners, he didn’t need a hood like Savino to convince him of that.

Ralph, in the meantime, is trying to track down Estelle’s killer while Jack is busy flirting with Mia Rizzo who comes in for her work card. She flirts back. Ralph breaks up the flirt fest and Jack gives her a work card. An older white guy, Randell, and his son, Terry, come in, they tell Ralph they are family friends of Estelle’s. Her mother was their housekeeper and she and Terry grew up together.

At the Tumbleweed, Ralph and Jack track down their suspect in Estelle’s death and he tells them that Estelle was trouble because she liked “white men”. On the way out, Ralph runs into Katherine (Carrie-Ann Moss is the one person on this show who looks comfortable in vintage clothing.)

As Ralph and Katherine are talking, we cut to the exterior of Fremont Street and see a car coming at the camera and a guy throw a Molotov cocktail into the Tumbleweed.  Ralph throws himself on Katherine to shield her from the explosion.  A fireball explodes out the door of the Tumbleweed.

Katherine and Ralph flirt until Jack and Dixon come up and give Ralph the update on injuries, make and model of the offending car and wait, there’s the Sahara sign and is that supposed to be the Landmark in the far background?  Grrrrr!  Fremont Street and the Strip aren’t interchangeable!!!!

Katherine offers to help with the investigation.

Savino and Hays meet. Hays is unhappy about his place getting bombed and says Cornero is applying pressure to get him to sign a deal. Savino calls Cornero a goon. If they are talking about Tony Cornero, whose ties to Las Vegas go back to the 1930s when he owned the Meadows nightclub and the Tony Cornero who built the Stardust, they are talking about a dead man because Cornero died at the craps table in 1955. Grrr……

Savino promises to get Cornero off Hays’ back and Hays tells him he has to the end of the day. Savino goes to visit Davy Cornero (perhaps a distant cousin of Tony’s). Savino tells him to back off and offers to cut him in but not his bosses in Milwaukee. Cornero agrees.

Ralph talks to a desk clerk from the Blue  (what originally sounded like a jazz club is now a motel????) who tells him that Estelle was arguing with a white man.  Jack reports that he checked out Estelle’s bank account and she was getting $500 a month “regular like clock work”.

The money was coming from Randall, who it turns out is her father. His wife is not happy about that.

The next scene takes us to a parking garage where a couple of thugs try to take out Savino but lucky for all of us, they are bad shots.

Randall visits Ralph and Jack at the Sheriff’s Office and tells his sad story. Estelle wanted him to publicly acknowledge her paternity. He balked. He was paying for her to go to Nevada Southern University (they got that right) and he had agreed to tell his wife and son that he had an affair with the housekeeper and Estelle was his daughter.

Savino and the DA are talking. Savino is filling him in on the hit gone wrong when Ralph interrupts them. The DA covers by saying he was there to tell Mr. Savino that if “he wants a mob war in this city, he’s going to hear from us, see he understands” he says as he walks out. But Ralph is now suspicious of him.

After the DA leaves, Ralph and Savino talk. Savino underplays the hit. “You fellas want to kill each other, don’t do it in my town”. “It’s my town, too” Savino tells him.  “We’ll see.” Says Ralph on his way out.

To their credit, it was a well acted scene.

Mia comes up to Ralph and Jack as they are leaving the Savoy and Ralph tells Jack that his interest in Mia is not a good idea.

Looks like Terry is the one who ran down Estelle. He knew Estelle was his sister. Ralph realizes that the kid is a junkie. Terry cops to loving Estelle, he bought her an emerald necklace and bracelet but took them back from her apartment and pawned them the day before. He still has the jewelry box and Ralph discovers pictures hidden in the box. The pixs are of her and Randall, someone was watching them and she was being blackmailed.

Katherine and Dixon interview the kitchen staff of the Tumbleweed and discover that Hays was talking to Milwaukee guys.

Johnny Rizzo is back in town and back in the Savoy. He and Savino talk and Savino tells Rizzo about his idea of taking over the Tumbleweed. Johnny wants half the take from the Tumbleweed to keep him from telling Angelo that Vincent was going behind his back. That partnership can’t be long for the world.

Ralph and Jack discover that one of Estelle’s co-workers from the Tumbleweed was the person who was following her and blackmailing her. The maid was jealous and that led to Estelle’s death.

Katherine comes by to wrap up the case and tells Ralph that Cornero is currently missing. Over at the Savoy, Mia apologizes for not knowing that her dad was coming to town. The Mormon banker has invited Savino and his wife to the country club. “to be a fly on that wall” says Mia.

“Must not be easy trying things your way.” She tells Savino. “The old ways were never easy either. Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward.” Savino tells her.

To the strains of Dino singing “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”, Savino’s guys take out the Milwaukee guys. “Be sure you bury them good, I don’t want any guest appearances.”

“You make the rules, we just got it take it” Jack tells Ralph back at the ranch when he discovers that Ralph didn’t tear down the tree.  After Jack leaves, Ralph looks out the window and in his dream, he sees his wife hanging laundry.

Back on Fremont Street, Jack approaches Mia, they flirt and he asks her to dinner but she has plans. The DA is there and he is going to show her around. You just know that Mia would rather stay and have dinner with Jack. Maybe another time.

This episode was interesting and had some good scenes. But the writing is still overall lackluster and could definitely use a big injection of drama and character. Because  the cases of the week aren’t interesting enough and the overall story arc of the conflict between Ralph Lamb and Vincent Savino isn’t compelling enough.

 What do you think? Hit the comments section and let us know!

All That Glitters, Vegas episode 1.3

A young boxer, just back from the Olympics, is found dead. Ralph investigates. In the larger story, the owner of the Savoy, Angelo and his first lieutenant, Johnny Rizzo, arrive in town and chaos ensues.

“One federal witness , two federal agents and the last Sheriff of Clark County” Jack Lamb in reciting the ways Savino has broken the law since coming to town.

Side note and quibble- Ralph Lamb was the sheriff of Clark County, not Las Vegas. Clark County begins at Sahara (San Francisco Street back in the day) but this show takes place, almost exclusively, downtown where Ralph didn’t have any jurisdiction. Metro (the combining of the City Police Dept with the County Sheriff's Dept) didn't happen until the 1970s.

Well, things could be looking up, Jonathan Banks joins the cast. Been a fan since his days on Wiseguy (first William Russ, now Jonathan Banks and loved him as Mike on Breaking Bad). As the owner of the Savoy, he brings some menace.

Mia (Sarah Jones) is the daughter of Johnny Rizzo (Michael Wiseman), the man who brings the big money in and seems to be Angelo's favorite.

A dead body (the boxer) on Fremont Street.  Why can I see portions of the Sahara sign and the original Stardust sign next to the Savoy?  WTF???  The Savoy is not on the Strip. As I mentioned last week, you can see the Golden Nugget from his office. The Savoy is on Fremont Street. The geography is all over the map and not in a good way.

Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing these recreations of the signs and casino fronts but how hard is it to at least distinguish between the Strip and downtown. It was only 50 years ago and there are plenty of photos, news articles, film footage (from the Las Vegas News Bureau archives as well as network news archives like CBS) and postcards that show what hotels were where.

Fremont Street

And no one who has seen them would believe that Fremont Street and the Strip were on the same County block.

Courtesy of LeavingLV.net- Fremont Street 1960s

Courtesy of LeavingLV.net- The Stardust from the era of the show

On the show, Johnny Rizzo is in the black book. If he’s in the black book, he not only can’t be on the gaming floor he can't stay in the hotel. It’s what got Sinatra’s license pulled when he owned a portion of the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe. He hosted Sam “Momo” Giancana and the Gaming Commission found out. Sinatra had to give up his points in the Sands as well.

Talking about skimming from the boss in his own hotel. That takes cojones. Too bad there's no weight in the words.

A gourmet restaurant, women’s clothing stores, in 1960s these are novel ideas? Every hotel on the Strip had them. These are not novel ideas for the era. No matter where the damn hotel is supposed to be located. The sawdust joints downtown had gourmet restaurants but space was valuable on Fremont Street so women’s shops, etc not necessary because the whole street had them (Ronzoni’s, Fanny’s, Chic Hecht’s, CH Baker Shoes) and women only had to walk a block to them vs on the Strip where you had to drive a half mile or more to get to the next property.

It’s stuff like this that takes me out of enjoying the show.  Well, that and the lack of character and story development.

Ralph vs Rizzo on the floor of the Savoy conjures up memories of Ralph vs Lefty Rosenthal. But Ralph had more gravitas. Or at least the stories do. These are still archetypes not real characters so no one’s words carry any weight.

The original wiseguys were smart enough to keep the violence to the outskirts of town, not the floors of the casinos and while they may not have liked Lamb, they likely didn’t entertain the idea of whacking him.

Rizzo advocates for the removal of Lamb, the more violent the better. He takes his case to Angelo and Savino must defend the idea of letting Lamb live because the bottom line is, killing him is bad for tourism. “If we take him out, best case scenario the feds don’t come after us, they don’t revoke our gaming  license but we still have two dead sheriffs in less than a month. What man is going to take his wife to a city without any law? Without tourism, there’s no money, there’s no suitcases coming home. Whatever we think of Ralph Lamb, we need him alive, for now. Otherwise we have another wasted opportunity, another Havana in the desert.”

Angelo sides with Savino which only serves to make Rizzo mad and you can tell by the commercial break, the bad blood between Rizzo and Savino just got worse.

The scene of Chiklis delivering the above speech is the best acting we’ve seen so far by any of the characters. The main cast is trying hard but they need a story that is about these characters and not about archetypes.

The idea to kill Lamb felt more like a Rosenthal and Tony the Ant move than a Moe Dalitz move . But Lefty and Tony were almost 20 years later than the era the show is set in. You can’t just trade one era for the other.

Well, maybe you can. CBS is touting the show as its “#1 new drama”.

No show next week as the presidential debate takes place.

See you in two weeks!

Review of Vegas episode 1.2, Money Plays, is here!

This week's episode of Vegas, Money Plays!, premiered on Tuesday. The story centered around a series of burglaries in town and the bad guy from last week parlaying his insider's knowledge of Savino's operation into an agreement with the Feds. Of course, Savino can't let the guy live and can't let the guy sing to the Feds about what he knows. So, a good portion of the hour was spent on the various ways Savino tried to set up a hit on his former employee. Oh, and a new character came to run the count room at the Savoy. Sarah Jones (late of Alcatraz) joined the cast as Mia Rizzo, the daughter of the Chicago mobster who Savino works for. She has some ideas of how the hotel should be run and she and Savino clash before the episode is over.

Thoughts on this week's episode:

The coffee shop where Ralph was having breakfast, should have been in the Horseshoe. Speaking of the 'Shoe, why is it missing from Fremont Street? Even if they couldn't use the name they could have a similar gambling joint ala The Mint masquerading as The Dice Club.  Where’s Benny Binion (or a fictional character based on Benny)holding court with Dobie Doc in the Horseshoe coffee shop? Those two real-life larger than life characters would add to the story.

Speaking of missing characters- Where’s Miss Pearl (Mahlon Brown's grandmother)?  The older female with deep ties to the community who worked in the Sheriff’s office, knew Ralph and kept the place running. Would have made a great role for Margo Martindale.

Where’s the Strip?
The Savoy is on Fremont Street ( you can see the Golden Nugget sign outside Savino's office) but seems very out of place for Fremont Street.  It should be on the Strip. The interior screams Strip. The porte cochere screams Strip. Speaking of interiors, why do the interiors of the Fremont Street joints all look like they should be on the Strip? Did no one check out the photos on this site, the State Museum or Special Collections to get an idea of what Fremont Street gambling joints looked like inside? The sawdust joints of Fremont Street looked nothing like the interiors of the Strip.

 “Where you headed, Pop?" Dixon Lamb asks his father after Ralph and Jack Lamb have taken down a would-be jewel robber at the top of the show. "Downtown” replies Ralph.  WTF???? Ralph is already downtown, in fact, on the main street of downtown. He’s on Fremont Street.

I would hate to believe that the producers want us to believe that Ralph was on the Strip at that moment because that dog won't hunt. Speaking of the Fremont Street exterior set, I really miss the neon Santa Fe sign at the end of Fremont Street, especially during the night scenes.

A manager of the count room who lived in Henderson in 1960? Really? Henderson was the bastion of factory workers who worked at Titanium Metals back then. The manager would have lived in town either in apartment or a small house near downtown.

A female to run the count room? WTF??? Sarah Jones looks like she is playing dress up.

The music just seems added to remind us it’s the early 1960s not for any reason to drive or compliment the story.

Nice touch of being able to see the top of the Fremont Hotel when Chiklis is attacking a fire hydrant on Ogden Street.

This is basically NCIS in 1960 but the cast isn’t as cohesive or has the chemistry of that show even in the early days. The main cast seems to be trying but they are being let down on the story.

There’s no subtlety to the storytelling. Every ten minutes, punches are thrown rather it needs it or not.
It wouldn’t have been that difficult to get more of the history and historical production design right.
Outside the main cast, everyone looks like they are playing dress up and not concerned with characterization.

But the focus of the story isn’t on telling a compelling or nuanced story but more the crime of the week. Tis a pity. And it is possible to tell a compelling, nuanced larger story while dealing with a crime of the week.  Person of Interest also on CBS, does it every week. We had plenty of colorful real-life characters who could have added so much to the story but are being ignored. These characters are playing archtypes, black hats vs white hats, instead of characters. And I think many of us would prefer the engaging characters that are only being hinted at.

Hard to believe that this is the story that Nick Pileggi has wanted to tell for the last decade.