Directed by: Martin Scorsese (premiere episode)
Starring: Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Olivia Wilde, Andrew Dice Clay, Juno Temple, Ato Essendoh, Paul Ben-Victor
Vinyl is a show about one man's love of music and the troubled career he created due to it. He is Richie Finestra (Cannavale), a guy who worked his way from a bartender in a blues club to manager of one of the club's acts to founder of American Century Records. Vinyl beings in 1973 New York. His world is crumbling just as he is prepared to sell the company to German conglomerate Polygram Records. The sale is contingent upon the label signing Led Zeppelin, which is near impossible since Richie tried to screw them out of royalties and the band's manager hates Germans.
That is not the only trouble plaguing Richie, who as the story opens is buying cocaine and mulling over calling a detective. He then sees a commotion at a club down the street and goes in. What he sees and hears is a band not unlike The New York Dolls. They may even be the Dolls, but whoever they are, the music and atmosphere invigorates Richie. It reminds him why he is in the music business in the first place. The payoff to this, however, is ludicrous beyond measure. It is one of those payoffs you don't see coming, but then again, how could you? I won't spoil it for you, so you can see how ridiculous and unnecessary it is for yourself. I understand it is based on truth, but still.
Until that point, Vinyl covers familiar territory but does it very well. Richie is not unlike many Scorsese protagonists whose ambitions and need lead to self-destruction. Like Henry Hill in Goodfellas, though, we see how much he loves the life he leads. Richie's gift is his ear for music. He has the knack to determine what will sell. In one of the most entertaining scenes in the premiere episode, Richie lays into his A & R team for mocking ABBA as it plays on the record player. ("All I need to hear his three bars and I know they will be playing to football stadiums,")
Richie's family life is in tatters also. His marriage is on the rocks and family functions are interrupted by emergencies. A big one involves DJ Buck Rogers (Clay), who threatens to boycott playing the entire American Century catalog over a snub by Donnie Osmond. A two-day coke binge by Buck and Richie's representative ends very, very badly for all involved. The payoff here veers into Goodfellas territory also. We also see flashbacks of Richie's relationship with blues singer Lester Grimes (Essendoh), who is coerced into performing pop hits like "Cha Cha Twist" while held at bay by Richie's false promises that he will be able to play "his music". This also ends badly for Lester, who crosses paths with Richie which causes the haunting flashbacks.
Richie has all of the bells and whistles of wealth and power, including a big house, a swanky apartment in the city, and a new car with an early model car phone. However, he is unable to enjoy any of it. He is constantly putting out fires, most of which are his own doing. His partners are nowhere near as adept at worming out of bad situations. The company's lawyer has a knack for saying more than he should at the worst possible times.
Cannavale was hypnotically watchable as psychotic gangster Gyp Rossetti in Boardwalk Empire (executive produced by Scorsese). He was a guy, who could "find an insult in a bouquet of roses," as one character put it. In Vinyl, he is equally engrossing. Cannavale exudes power, ambition, greed, need, and a desperate physical and mental juggling act to keep it all going with help from booze and cocaine. He is so many balls in the air to concentrate on, we wonder when he will trip over his own feet for the last time.
Vinyl has a true sense of time and place. The show transports us to the early 1970s to a world where record companies actually held an artist's future in their hands. Acts were forever looking to be discovered as the next big thing. They toiled in the clubs and endured highs and lows before being discovered. When they become the next big thing, they have to put up with guys like Richie who see contracts as mere guidelines instead of legal documents. Nowadays, record stores are rare and most music is downloaded instead of bought in stores. Records have been replaced by CD's and computer files. New acts are discovered on YouTube and musical contest shows like American Idol and The Voice. The people in Vinyl are years away from seeing such a shift in the music paradigm. Like anything, they think it will last forever. We know differently.
Note: This is a review of the premiere episode of the HBO series. I am intrigued to see what happens next.
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