# Luck (2012)

> A cable drama set around a single racetrack where owners, jockeys, trainers and gamblers chase fortune on the same horse track.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/30122

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 9
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama
- Created by: David Milch
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina, John Ortiz, Richard Kind, Jill Hennessy, Nick Nolte, Kevin Dunn, Ian Hart
- TMDB rating: 7.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1578887/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: gritty, melancholic, darkly comic, tense

## What critics say

Audiences rated the single season positively, praising its gambling world and cast while the show was cut short after one run.

## Synopsis

Luck (2012) is an American HBO prestige drama created by David Milch. Dustin Hoffman stars as Chester Bernstein, a gambler whose fortunes are tied to the racetrack, alongside Dennis Farina as Gus Demitriou, John Ortiz as Turo Escalante, Richard Kind as Joey Rathburn and Nick Nolte as Walter Smith. The series follows owners, jockeys, trainers and gamblers whose lives all converge on one horse track, with each storyline built from wagers, horse trainers' gambles and the everyday hustle of people chasing a lucky break. Its engine is the tension between what characters want from a race and the forces working against them, from debts and rivals to bad breaks and risky bets. The show runs for a single nine-episode season, and its structure is an ensemble web rather than a case of the week. Set in the present-day American racing world, it carries a gritty, melancholic and darkly comic tone, with a rich texture of track life and gambling culture. Fans of Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood and Rounders will find resonance in its morally compromised characters, its underworld of wagering, and its portrait of people who live and die by chance.

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