- Network: CBS
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 25, 2012
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Critic Reviews
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One of the fall's best new dramas. [26 Nov 2012, p.48]
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What you end up with may not have the makings of a great drama at the Homeland/Breaking Bad level--but it could produce an extremely entertaining, refreshingly hackney-free weekly procedural, with the crimes playing out against a background of interesting characters and flashy time-travel sets.
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There's plenty to enjoy in this period drama. [28 Sep 2012, p.64]
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The new CBS cop drama Vegas--a cross between Gunsmoke, The Untouchables and a Sheriff Joe Arpaio reality show--is wildly entertaining.
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CBS has managed to create a period piece without relying solely on that factor as the cool conceit.
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Quaid and Chiklis will keep me watching for a while, but in the long run I'd like to see a more ambitious approach to the material.
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What Vegas lacks in the whodunit department it makes up for with the bigger narrative about a town up for grabs and the two men vying to get their hands on it.
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Whether you see the seams or not, though, what matters is that it all works, and we'll keep watching, if only to see Quaid and Chiklis square off against each other week after week.
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It has the makings of a damned fine weekly hour of good vs. evil, with Quaid against Chiklis as the crowd-pleasing main event.
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Vegas is likely to be successful simply because, at heart, it's a CBS crime procedural with cowboy threads.
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Vegas isn't art and doesn't knock itself out pretending otherwise. But its no-fuss directness is appealing, and Quaid's ropy scowl keeps it centered.
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I'll keep watching, given the caliber of the cast and the solidly made pilot, and I'll hope that Vegas gives these actors more to do than standing over bodies and leveling shotguns at city slickers.
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If Vegas goes the "Good Wife" route and focuses on characters and politics, it could develop into a worthwhile series.
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While the pilot didn't blow me away, there's enough in its premise (the mob comes to Las Vegas in the early '60s), its casting (Michael Chiklis as a gangster and Dennis Quaid as his sheriff adversary) and its seeming ambition that make me more interested in it than in most new shows this fall.
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It's a solid premise executed with the usual CBS professionalism.
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It's not a perfect show, but to judge by its pilot, it has good bones and excellent prospects, with a cast that knows just how much fun it can have before it seems as if it is just having fun.
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The stage is thus set for an epic showdown between the dogged Lamb and Vincent, under whose calm facade lies a vicious shark of a man.
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Unlike other period dramas, notably AMC's "Mad Men" and Starz's "Magic City," Vegas doesn't cram the hour with topical references. Here, they're more subtle and jarring.
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CBS' sustained level of series craftsmanship is certainly admirable--their dramas all look sharp and function smoothly--but that doesn't go so far when even a sweeping period piece in a distinct locale with superior stars seems to roll off the same assembly line.
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A large supporting cast helps Vegas appear to be compelling and classy. And then CBS lapses into its old habit, as Lamb and company squander all this intriguing potential trying to solve their first of many cases.
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Chiklis chews scenery--in a good, very good way--and Quaid is terrific, but both deserve far better than what they're given here.
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Where the show stumbles a little is in the case itself.
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Vegas has a lot of things going for it: star power, period ambience, and a compelling Vegas central conflict. But despite all that, the show doesn't feel like it's hit the jackpot.
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The debut isn't disastrous by any means, it just doesn't crackle.
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People who like their procedurals with punch--there's plenty of punching, not to mention kicking, in the pilot--might like CBS' period cop show just the way it is. But if I'm going to stay with Vegas, I'm going to need to be wooed a little.
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Yet if the premise sets up a promising square-off of titans, the premiere retreats to a rather predictable, time-killing murder mystery, which serves to establish Lamb's new role, but also smacks more of CBS' stodgier procedurals than a character-driven drama.
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It's all just window dressing on a standard crime drama, however, and while the pilot sets up running story lines involving the gangster and the officials he controls, they feel squeezed and a little perfunctory.
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Vegas is not embarrassing. But it is just a gussied-up procedural, which would be fine, if it weren't so blatantly aiming to be something more.
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Chiklis is terrific. Too often, though, Vegas plays like a comic book, without much depth to its characters.
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Some of this talent is visible in the premiere episode's poetic counterbalancing of empty landscapes and claustrophobic casino back-offices, and actors' convincing performances.... When it comes to plotting and scripting, though, Vegas is far less sure-footed.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 35 out of 53
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Mixed: 13 out of 53
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Negative: 5 out of 53
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Sep 27, 2012
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Nov 17, 2012
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Sep 25, 2012