Las Vegas

Big, loud, brash, fun -- just like the city...Hits the jackpot. [22 Sept 2003, p.1E]

Created by Gary Scott Thompson ("The Fast and the Furious"), Las Vegas appears to have all the ingredients of a compulsively watchable guilty pleasure. [22 Sept 2003, p.D01]

Sometimes it takes a little while for a show to hit its stride, and watching Las Vegas for the first half of its first season was a crapshoot. ... So the series pumped up the guest-star quotient. That's when the fun began, around the turn of this year, when people as diverse as Paris Hilton, Sean Astin, Dennis Hopper, and Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath began showing up.

Las Vegas is as flattering to companies like the MGM Mirage Inc. as "The Love Boat" once was to Princess Cruises. Yet the show still manages to be slick, fast-paced and engaging, a remake of the remake of "Ocean's Eleven," in which all the good-looking people work for the casino, not against it.

The multiplicity of story lines and characters turns Las Vegas into a complex undertaking, but Caan, Duhamel and their excellent castmates make it work, brilliantly. [22 Sept 2003, p.4E]

Of the 36 new network shows premiering this fall, Las Vegas is among the more promising. [22 Sept 2003, p.B7]

Certainly, anyone looking for fast-paced, neon-lit entertainment will find Las Vegas one of the season's surprisingly better bets.

It has a zest, from the voice-over to the sharp writing and sexy cast, that was completely unexpected. Duhamel has star appeal, and Caan is can't-miss.

It doesn't always feel realistic, but it works on its own terms: What happens in Las Vegas stays in "Las Vegas." [22 Sept 2003, p.42]

Much of the tone is supplied by an acting ensemble that keeps it light and unforced, combined with some sharp editing. There's a bit too much voiceover, all from Duhamel's McCoy, but it is effective in establishing his mindset. Las Vegas, like the city itself, has guilty pleasure written all over it.

While there's nothing particularly compelling or memorable about Las Vegas, it is an undeniably fun action romp with an appealing cast. [22 Sept 2003]

This isn't a laugh riot, but it's got promise. [22 Sept 2003, p.6]

Marcil, an Emmy winner for General Hospital, has the strongest chemistry with Duhamel. They are the bold and the beautiful, but they need stronger writing for Las Vegas to be a winner.

Las Vegas is definitely watchable; the pace is so fast that it's as if the filmmakers are fast- forwarding so you don't have to. But the plot is so tangled it's almost incomprehensible, the grace notes are laminated beneath visual slickness - and throughout, it's hard to shake the feeling that you've seen it before and don't need to see it again. [22 Sept 2003, p.35]

Las Vegas needs all the gimmickry it can get because the basic premise of the show is shaky; we are expected to sympathize with the management of a big Vegas casino instead of rooting for the poor schmoes who are trying desperately to make some wild dream come true at the blackjack tables.

I lost interest in tonight's pilot when attention turned to a card-counter with an outside confederate. OK, they're cheating. [22 Sept 2003, p.D-5]

Something part good and part incredibly, unforgivably smarmy.

If only the series works its way toward more effective show than tell, Las Vegas might find itself with a winning hand.

Like casino chips sprinkled over a roulette table, the assets of this NBC show aren't being used very wisely, and are no guarantee of success. [22 Sept 2003, p.77]

If Caan grabs more screen time and the writers build on the hints of sexual chemistry between Danny and Nessa, I might place a small bet on this superslick series-provided Danny learns the virtue of occasional silence.

More problematic than the dramatic license taken by creator Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and the Furious) is the lack of a compelling story. [22 Sept 2003, p.12E]

All style, no substance.

The production values are extremely high. This may be trash, but it comes in an attractive can.

Seems like a high-stakes game of Baccarat, with NBC throwing good money after bad. [22 Sept 2003, p.E8]

One of the new season's bigger disappointments. The frantic pace of this action drama, set behind the scenes in a casino security firm, can't disguise the shallow story-telling and annoying, badly developed characters. James Caan is wasted as the boss, and Josh Duhamel got much better stuff to work with on "All My Children." [22 Sept 2003, p.E6]

It is enthralling if your thing is dizzying visuals, rapid-fire dialogue and overblown acting. It's the sort of show that makes people wonder about American network TV. It's empty-headed and flashy, and there's not much going on. It's terrific piffle, fascinating to watch as an example of the state of TV storytelling, even as it only feigns sizzle and sass. [22 Sept 2003, p.R2]

Marred by clumsy dialogue, improbable events and characters so cliched as to be inhuman. [22 Sept 2003, p.3]