Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Little sneak preview..
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/01/10/100ae_baltacolumn.cfm
ESPN is latest network to try scoring in Vegas
By Victor Balta
Herald Columnist
Apparently, what happens in Vegas doesn’t so much stay in Vegas as it does show up on TV with disturbing frequency.
The past few years, in particular, have brought a seemingly endless stream of flashing lights from the strip.
Reality shows including Fox’s “The Casino,” Discovery Channel’s “American Casino” and A&E’s upcoming “Caesars 24/7” offer looks behind the glitz and glam.
NBC’s drama “Las Vegas” highlights a casino surveillance team, CBS’s “Dr. Vegas,” which was canceled last year, brought us along with a casino’s house doctor, and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” is just a good premise where Sin City makes for a nice backdrop.
Now, ESPN, one of the networks responsible for bringing real high-stakes poker tournaments into our living rooms, introduces an original drama, “Tilt,” that packages it all together but ultimately fails to stand out from the rest.
The show is created and produced by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who teamed up on the poker favorite “Rounders,” which starred Matt Damon. It premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday.
“Tilt” will most certainly draw comparisons to the sports network’s controversial drama from 2003, “Playmakers,” a hyped-up behind-the-scenes look at the dark side of pro football.
“Playmakers” was criticized for being too remarkable, too sensational in its attempt to wrap every supposedly sinister nugget of the pro sports world — from steroid use and domestic violence to homosexuality — into one team.
It was extreme, but it made for decent spectacle and it was something we hadn’t really seen before. Almost daily reports of athletes using steroids or getting wrapped up in crime or drugs pulled viewers in, even if the events on the show were over the top.
Now “Tilt” spotlights the ominous side of high-stakes gambling.
It’s set in the week leading up to the World Poker Championship at the fictitious Colorado Casino.
Poker legend Don “The Matador” Everest — played with a Mickey Rourkelike toughness by Michael Madsen of the recent “Kill Bill” movies — is the lovable bad guy.
You’re amused, intrigued and a little spooked by Everest, sort of a poor man’s Tony Soprano who’s definitely involved in some backdoor scheming.
A group of up-and-coming poker hotshots who have all been wronged by Everest in the past, though we don’t know how, are back in town to settle the score at the table.
Toss in a small-town cop from Iowa who wants to avenge the death of his brother, a former poker cheater, and you’ve got the makings of a drama that will at least keep you curious.
There are legs broken in a dark corner of a stairwell.
There’s a guy beat up in a dark parking garage.
There’s collusion between players seeking to take down foes, and there’s the proper-looking but ever-so-slimy casino boss in a decked-out office where he watches all the action from security cameras piped into big screens.
But we’ve seen or imagined these Vegas images before. We know the figures and we know the story, but the intrigue and mystique is still there.
It’s Vegas, baby.
We’ll keep going back, even though the odds are always against us.
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/01/10/100ae_baltacolumn.cfm
ESPN is latest network to try scoring in Vegas
By Victor Balta
Herald Columnist
Apparently, what happens in Vegas doesn’t so much stay in Vegas as it does show up on TV with disturbing frequency.
The past few years, in particular, have brought a seemingly endless stream of flashing lights from the strip.
Reality shows including Fox’s “The Casino,” Discovery Channel’s “American Casino” and A&E’s upcoming “Caesars 24/7” offer looks behind the glitz and glam.
NBC’s drama “Las Vegas” highlights a casino surveillance team, CBS’s “Dr. Vegas,” which was canceled last year, brought us along with a casino’s house doctor, and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” is just a good premise where Sin City makes for a nice backdrop.
Now, ESPN, one of the networks responsible for bringing real high-stakes poker tournaments into our living rooms, introduces an original drama, “Tilt,” that packages it all together but ultimately fails to stand out from the rest.
The show is created and produced by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who teamed up on the poker favorite “Rounders,” which starred Matt Damon. It premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday.
“Tilt” will most certainly draw comparisons to the sports network’s controversial drama from 2003, “Playmakers,” a hyped-up behind-the-scenes look at the dark side of pro football.
“Playmakers” was criticized for being too remarkable, too sensational in its attempt to wrap every supposedly sinister nugget of the pro sports world — from steroid use and domestic violence to homosexuality — into one team.
It was extreme, but it made for decent spectacle and it was something we hadn’t really seen before. Almost daily reports of athletes using steroids or getting wrapped up in crime or drugs pulled viewers in, even if the events on the show were over the top.
Now “Tilt” spotlights the ominous side of high-stakes gambling.
It’s set in the week leading up to the World Poker Championship at the fictitious Colorado Casino.
Poker legend Don “The Matador” Everest — played with a Mickey Rourkelike toughness by Michael Madsen of the recent “Kill Bill” movies — is the lovable bad guy.
You’re amused, intrigued and a little spooked by Everest, sort of a poor man’s Tony Soprano who’s definitely involved in some backdoor scheming.
A group of up-and-coming poker hotshots who have all been wronged by Everest in the past, though we don’t know how, are back in town to settle the score at the table.
Toss in a small-town cop from Iowa who wants to avenge the death of his brother, a former poker cheater, and you’ve got the makings of a drama that will at least keep you curious.
There are legs broken in a dark corner of a stairwell.
There’s a guy beat up in a dark parking garage.
There’s collusion between players seeking to take down foes, and there’s the proper-looking but ever-so-slimy casino boss in a decked-out office where he watches all the action from security cameras piped into big screens.
But we’ve seen or imagined these Vegas images before. We know the figures and we know the story, but the intrigue and mystique is still there.
It’s Vegas, baby.
We’ll keep going back, even though the odds are always against us.
