The Last Tycoon

Amazon’s Tycoon is the TV equivalent of a great beach book: a page-turner with larger-than-life characters, set in a glitzy, gossipy world of secrets. I watched the entire season over a few days, mostly because I was having too much fun to stop.

A lovely period piece that contains several top-notch performances. Featuring Kelsey Grammer, Matt Bomer and Jennifer Beals doing some of their best work, The Last Tycoon wraps its most unforgiving truths expensive satin and drapes them in softly lit diamonds. At its best, the series recalls the melancholy elegance of some of the best films of the 1930s.

The result is a glossy look at the time period that, despite leaning on some familiar emotional and story territory, still makes for an engaging, enjoyable viewing experience.

Tycoon manages to capture the wistful tone Fitzgerald so often employed, while also being a breezy binge-watch. The author may never have finished his story, but the Amazon series makes a strong case for continuing it.

Matt Bomer is magnetic as Monroe Stahr, a golden-boy producer drive to churn out premium content to keep a struggling dream factory afloat. [21/28 July 2017, p.113]

Thought-provoking and melancholy, like all good F. Scott Fitzgerald stories, The Last Tycoon delivers a good summer watch. ... All this said, The Last Tycoon has taken some critical heat, and not without cause. It has several unsparkling passages and weak spots.

As a drama, The Last Tycoon is slightly less successful. Occasionally plodding and without a lot to say in the early going that isn’t spelled out in capital letters--NAZIS = BAD!--early episodes offer good, not great drama.

The Amazon series can play like an old Hollywood movie one minute, self-consciously gabby and filled with witticisms. The next, it’s a smart glitzy contemporary soap opera or sly but telling commentary on the entertainment business. Sometimes it bounces a bit too much between the different aspects. Sometimes things mesh nicely, and the series is never boring.

At its best, The Last Tycoon is an absorbing trip back to Hollywood's not-so-Golden Age. And even when it slips, it's still pretty good melodrama, with desperate characters, unexpected deaths and gorgeous people pretending they're keeping it together even when they're not.

Despite a somewhat dull leading man, The Last Tycoon is a relatively successful series, far more realistic and multifaceted than many of its fellows that attempt to show the seedier side of moviemaking in the Golden Age.