Luck, Ep. 1.04: Michael Gambon adds a touch of menace to a strong outing
Luck, Season One, Episode Four
Written by Jay Hovdey
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Airs Sundays at 10pm EST on HBO
Several of the small legion of critics who have access to Luck‘s entire first season have been claiming for weeks that it’s in this fourth installment that the show really kicks it up a notch and finds its rhythm. Sure enough, “Episode Four” does constitute a slight upward tick in urgency, but it thankfully still retains the bizarro qualities that have kept the show so distinct (and distinctly Milchian).
Most improved this week: the Ace Bernstein side of the equation. Both major developments on his front this week – the first face-to-face with the mythical Mike (Michael Gambon) and the establishment of a maybe-courtship with horse-shelter activist Clare Lachay (Joan Allen) – go off nicely and with a noted lack of obvious expository dialogue. Watching titans like Gambon and Hoffman face off is a rare treat, though hopefully the next weeks take us deeper into the nitty-gritty of Bernstein’s ploy so that we can become more fully engaged.
