Viva Laughlin: The Worst New Show on TV
So you’d think I’d love it, right? No. I had to turn it off halfway through.
It’s about an ambitious guy in Laughlin, NV who is trying to open a casino. One of his investors bails at the last minute, leaving him without enough money to open, because the investor’s wife wants him to invest in a windfarm.
Sounds harmless enough, but this show is a musical. And not just any musical. The actors break into singing, and sort of dancing (more like posing on table tops), true. But they’re not singing original songs. And they’re not covering existing songs. No, they’re singing ALONG with existing songs.
The first singing bit is the lead character as he enters his almost-ready-to-open-but-not-without-rich-dude’s-$1-million casino. And he’s singing along with Elvis’ “Viva Las Vegas.”
It was just…weird. And not a good weird.
The next song is introducing his rival, the bad guy, played by (can you believe this) Hugh Jackman. Hugh owns his own very successful casino and of course, does not want our hero opening his. What song does Hugh sing? “Sympathy For the Devil” by the Stones.
It turns out that Mr Bad Guy/Rival was paying the investor’s wife to get the investor to bail on our hero’s casino. So, our hero goes to visit the investor’s wife. She’s a skanky desperate older woman, played by (can you believe this) Melanie Griffith. Dressed in a pink teddy and holding a cigarette and a drink. Yes. She offers to get her husband to go ahead and invest in our hero’s casino, but only if our hero will sleep with her. But she doesn’t actually say this point-blank. No, no. She express it all through song.
Yes. And the song? Blondie’s “One Way or Another.”
It was at this point that I turned off my tv and went to sleep. I don’t need these awesome songs associated in my head with this lame show and these horrible actors.
Things that could have made the show better:
- Characters and a plot I actually care about.
- Actors that can actually sing, or at least pull off the songs they’re singing. I kept wanting Hugh to shut up so I could hear Mick.
- Sub plots I actually care about. In this show, the hero’s college age daughter is dating her 42 year old professor, and our hero takes time out from his busy opening-a-casino dayjob to go punch him in the face. Just lame.
- A large dose of sweet, sweet cheese. All dramas need cheese to be effective. It’s just a fact of life.
I really like the idea of a TV show incorporating popular music to portray characters and advance the plot—like Melanie and the lame-o hero tangling with each other in the “One Way or Another” scene. But this implementation was horrid. And I’m actually rather sad about it. It’s going to drive the final nail into the coffin that is musical TV.
Posted on October 19, 2007, in Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
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you made it further than me. i turned it off when the guy starting “singing” viva las vegas. it was embarassing.
I need to preface this by saying Hugh Jackman is one of my pretend boyfriends. If he’s hosting the Tonys, I watch. If he’s on screen breathing, I try to catch it. So, when I heard he was producing a BBC adaptation show & would sometimes guest star, I tivo’d it.
Oh. My. Holy. Freaking. Crap. That was just about the worst show in the world. And, Susan. Melanie Griffith clogging up my screen singing Blondie was about when I turned it off too. I can’t stand her to begin with, but. Oh. That was bad.
Pushing Daisies had a scene in the second episode where a character sang a song that reflected how she was feeling, and it was pretty well done.
Too bad about Laughlin – my employer owns a large parcel in Laughlin on the river that is slated for Casino development, and we were all hoping the show might have a positive effect on future land sale. Looks like we won’t get any help from Hollywood after all.
They should have based it on the real Don Laughlin, it would have been a more interesting story. He lives in a penthouse, while paying the expenses for his wife to occupy the other penthouse in town. He says it’s cheaper than if he divorced her and she ended up with half his assets.
Cantinflas, that was a song from Grease! It was “Hopelessly Devoted.” It worked well, esp. thanks to Kristin Chenoweth’s talent.
Yeah I meant to compare the two—how an actor singing on their own is much better than what this show did. But my post got wiped when the site went down for a few minutes.
I’m a little bit regretful that I missed this. I saw the original series, “Viva Blackpool,” that this was based on and it wasn’t bad. It had its problems, but it was very well acted (especially David Morrissey and David Tennant) and well plotted. I pegged this as being a show that absolutely couldn’t translate into a U.S. series, but I was still curious to see where they went with it.
Ack. I tried to watch “Viva Blackpool” (along w/ BTD Greg), but I just couldn’t. It was just too wretchedly dull despite the music and despite the great actors. Susan, what you described sounds a lot like the original. I just couldn’t make myself care about the characters long enough to follow their plotlines. Every time we’d try to watch together I’d promptly fall asleep.
You made it further than I did, Susan. I turned it off after the opening credits.
…and it’s been cancelled. First scripted show to go this year.