FX (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET)
Critic's Choice
[STARS 1]
Dramatic comedy or comedic drama? This new half-hour series is hard to label but easy to get hooked on.
John Corbett stars as Michael "Lucky" Linkletter, a compulsive gambler who won $1 million in the World Championship of Poker and managed to blow the dough within a year. In the premiere we see him lose his job as a Las Vegas car salesman because he offers zero-percent financing to all comers. It's only money, right?
Lucky has a pair of goofy gambling pals, Vinny (Billy Gardell) and Mutha (Craig Robinson), who come to the fore when the scripts call for broad comedy. But his funniest acquaintance is Joey (Dan Hedaya), a loan shark in almost perpetual motion. When Lucky gets bashed in the head by a mugger and holds a newspaper to his wound, Joey pauses long enough to read the bloody comics.
Viewers know Corbett's good looks and relaxed charm from Sex and the City and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but here he goes for more complexity. While Lucky's references to his wife's death seem like a stretch for poignancy, his relationship with fellow gambling addict Theresa (Ever Carradine) could give the show some genuine emotional heft. Meantime there are big laughs in store in the April 29 episode, when Lucky tries selling meat for a living and finds more baloney than he bargained for.
BOTTOM LINE: Winning hand
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