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Stan Lee’s Lucky Man S01E05 “The Last Chance” REVIEW
Stan Lee’s Lucky Man S01E05 “The Last Chance” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on Sky 1, Fridays, 9pm
Writer: Rachel Anthony
Director: Brian Kelly
Essential Plot Points:
- By an amazing stroke of luck Harry survives his Russian roulette experience when the Bald Russian Guy, Yury Becker, shoots himself dead (we did say an amazing stroke of luck!)
- Eve bundles Harry out of the room saying she’ll deal with things.
- Harry and Suri investigate the shooting of the owner of a private club called Hoxton Ditch.
- They rapidly find out the name of the shooter, Tim Larson; the fact that he’s a gambler; and the fact that there’s a secret casino at the Hoxton Ditch. Harry’s magic bangle is clearly working well.
- Harry, though, doubts Tim could afford to play at the exclusive Hoxton. He suspects Tim was forced to kill the Hoxton owner by somebody else he owed money to.
- Suri recognises a guy working at the Hoxton Casino as someone from the Green Dragon casino. She immediately surmises that Lily-Anne Lau is using the place for money laundering. (Does Suri have a magic bangle too or is this all down to magical scriptwriting?)
- Harry becomes convinced Lily-Anne Lau forced Tim to murder the Hoxton Ditch boss to try to cover up her money laundering.
- Suri alerts the fraud squad and they raid the Green Dragon casino, find the device for fixing the roulette wheel, arrest Lily-Anne and impound lots of possible evidence.
- Harry, meanwhile, is on Tim Larson’s trail having learned that he was going to take part in a “game” where people gamble not just money, but cars, houses, wives and even their lives. Or bits of their body at least.
- Through his contacts Harry locates where the latest game is being held. Through luck he bluffs his way in.
- Harry wins the game (Whose Sugar Knob Will Mr Ratty Eat First? Not exactly Casino Royale, is it?).
- Tim is one of the contestants. Harry is shocked to learn that, among other things, he has just won Tim’s tongue.
- The Game Master is about to chop it out when…
- …Harry proposes another game and if he wins again, he wins Tim in his entirety, intact. With tongue still in mouth.
- Of course, Harry wins, leaves with Tim, then nicks him.
- Tim confesses to the killing but refuses to say who put him up to it.
- Orwell tries once more to get Lily-Anne Lau to hand over the CCTV footage of Harry gambling at the Green Dragon the night of her father’s death. She says okay, but not yet.
- Through her contacts she gets a message to Harry: she wants him secretly “liberate” out an item of evidence taken from the Green Dragon – a box that was on her desk.
- Harry secretly procures the box but keeps it for himself. He finds a memory stick in a secret compartment. On it there’s a file with a picture of a promissory note from Tim to Lily-Anne Lau for £110,000.
- Suri is troubled at Harry’s methods but decides to play along. Though Winter’s words to her about Harry (“Don’t let him turn you into him!”) are ringing in her ears, she further arrests Lily-Anne Lau on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
- Rich tells Suri that Harry’s gambling addiction is a result his identical twin brother having died when the were just kids. His constant need to test his luck is like a “death wish”.
- The bleeding heart liberal prison boss at White Cross invites Anna to become a mentor for the inmates. She agrees but only as it gives her a way to further investigate Grey’s apparent suicide.
- Eve reveals to Harry that he was one of the investigating officers when her mother was murdered.
- Suri intercepts a package that’s delivered to the office addressed to Winter. She opens it and finds a memory stick inside. On it is the CCTV footage of Harry at the Green Dragon. WHAT WILL SHE DO NOW???
Review:
When the highlight of an episode is someone not getting stopped by red lights you have to suspect the show isn’t getting its priorities right. Harry hits the nail on the head when he tells Suri that he’s just been to, “the worse casino in the world.” He has indeed but maybe not in the way he meant it.The centrepiece of the episode should have been the BIG, SECRET, ILLICIT gambling game with the NO-HOLDS BETTING. It’s spoken about in hushed terms. It’s mentioned only in shadows. It is clearly a BID DEAL!
Except it’s not.
It’s like Extreme Mouse Trap where the big prize is somebody else’s severed tongue. Yeah right. “Come and play the biggest-risk gambling experience in the world. It’s over in 30 seconds! You get licked by a rat! And you may lose your Porsche but hey if you like tongue soup you’re luck’s in!” It is ludicrously, laughably banal.
Anyway, single-most-unimpressive-set-piece-of-the-series-so-far aside, the episode’s not too bad. It resolves the Russian roulette cliffhanger with the kind of ludicrous piece of luck that we’ve been asking for more of since the pilot. Before Bald Russian guy (we prefer that to Yury) shoots himself in the chest (that’s right – a gun that was pointing at Harry ultimately plants a bullet into the guy who was pulling the trigger) he tells Harry that he hasn’t learned to master his control over luck yet. This seems to be the spark Harry needs to start putting the magic bangle to use as every opportunity; turning traffic lights green, correctly guessing pass codes, pinpoint which file on a memory stick is the right one to open first. It’s still all a bit low rent, but we’re trusting that by the finale he’ll be leaping out of aeroplanes without a parachute to see if he’s rescued by a passing TARDIS.
And at no point does Eve turn up giving it all that Yin/Yang spiel, so Harry’s luck really must be in. But going by the show’s own rules, somebody close to Harry must be getting an awful lot of low level bad luck. Maybe Rich’s tea bags keep bursting in the mug?
Talking of Rich, his revelation about Harry’s dead twin being the trigger for his gambling addiction was a tad melodramatic. Was this just a throwaway line, or will the whole twin thing have some relevance to why Eve chose Harry? Hopefully not, as it has the definite whiff of an idea that could become awfully cheesy. Likewise Eve’s revelation about Harry working on her mother’s murder case. This show could start drowning in its own backstory.
Meanwhile, Winter and Orwell continue their odd cop/strange cop pairing and becoming more two dimensional by the week. We’re reminded that Winter seems to think he has some higher calling to nail Harry, but to be honest he’s so obsessed we’re wondering why his superiors aren’t questioning why he never seems to get any other work done. Aren’t there whole police departments devoted to investigating police corruption? Why doesn’t he het a job there?
Suri continues to be one of the best reasons to watch the show – smart, fun, resourceful – but she’s left in a dilemma at the end of the episode that could make or break her character. It’ll be interesting to see what she decides to do with the CCTV footage. She’s proven intelligent and independent so far; let’s hope she doesn’t have lobotomy in the week between episodes.
It’s also a pleasant surprise to see Lily-Anne nicked so soon in the series. You have to assume there’s a whole extra twist coming because the arch-as-the-Arc-De-Triomphe vamp is far too good a character to lose; a comic book villain in a show that seems slightly embarrassed by its roots. She could easily become Lucky Man’s Fish Mooney, and the show would benefit mightily from it.
The Good:
- The green light sequence.
- The jump cut to the guy playing a video game during the Russian roulette sequence – it was an obvious “gag” but it still made us jump.
- Harry getting pissy with Lermentov Jr in the back of the his car.
- The way the prisoner at White Cross’s Restaurant Rehabilitation pauses, thinks, then spits out Madam to the end of every sentence is an amusing little detail.
- Eve revealing that he just made up her spiel to Yury about needing to Harry in the eye while killing him otherwise he’d be cursed.
The Bad:
- That was some extreme luck going on there with the Bald Russian Guy shooting himself – the gun must have been loaded with a magic bullet.
- The “extreme” gambling was utter, utter rubbish. After all that mystery and hushed whispering we get a gameshow even Channel 5 would ashamed to commission.
- Harry seems peculiarly unsuspicious when the guy at the Hoxton Ditch doesn’t turn around to answer his questions.
- Tim was the most inept assassin ever. He was leaving clues all over the place like he wanted to get caught.
- Also, are we missing something? Presumably the debt was cleared when he killed the Hoxton guy. So why did he need to play Extreme Mouse Trap?
- And while betting your tongue is admittedly a pretty big thing for the person laying the bet, if you’ve bet your Porsche and you win, you’re going to be pretty pissed off at getting a bloody severed lump of gristle as a prize.
And The Random:
- Tim Larson is played by Andrew Lee Potts of Primeval and Wireless fame.
- The Games Master is played by Kevin Eldon, the current voice of Penfold in Danger Mouse and also known for Hyperdrive, Dead Set and various Harry Enfield comedy shows.
- Is is a good idea for an illegal gambling den to have its own personalised chips?
Review by Dave Golder
• Read our other Lucky Man reviews
Stan Lee’s Lucky Man S01E02 “Win Some, Lose Some” REVIEW
Stan Lee’s Lucky Man S01E02 “Win Some, Lose Some” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on Sky 1, Fridays, 9pm
Writer: Ben Schiffer
Director: Andy De Emmony
Essential Plot Points:
- As luck would have it, Harry survives having his arm cut off while drowning (it was a bad day at the office) through a wonderfully spurious chain of events.
- He also rescues colleague Ben from the (suspiciously un…) murky depths of the Thames.
- But Grey has escaped. They discover thousands of pounds in notes hidden on the private jet he was booked to leave on.
- Harry and his sidekick Suri eventually catch Grey when he secretly attends the funeral of the girl he’s suspected of murdering. He tries to escape capture by running but Harry intercepts him by taking a short cut – across six lanes of motorway traffic.
- Grey confesses to the murder of stripper Kayleigh and casino boss Freddy but Harry thinks there was more to these murders than a crime of passion and revenge. He believes Grey is acting under orders.
- Harry’s probably right considering there’s a pair of dodgy-looking Asian guys murdering the contacts that lead him to Grey.
- Harry’s wife, Anna – a lawyer, remember – turns up to represent Grey, despite Grey not having asked for representation. She does not reveal who has employed her.
- The guy who tried to chop Harry’s arm off with a machete turns up as Harry’s wife’s house looking for him. She thinks he’s a bailiff.
- Harry’s new boss, Detective Superintendent Winter, seems desperate to the point of neurotic to get Harry sacked for being reckless. DI Orwell vows to act as his eyes and ears.
- Harry tries his luck at the dog track and wins big. Mysterious woman Eve turns up and speaks in riddles but the overall impression is she pissed that he’s using his powers for frivolous exploits and reminds him that luck comes with a price.
- Then bald machete guy turns up and mysterious woman kicks his ass. Both she and bald machete guy vanish (along with the rest of the crowd at the dog track).
- Harry donates his winnings to a fellow member of his gambling addiction support group so she can afford an operation for her son. Next week expect to hear she blew it all on Lottery tickets.
- Ben and Suri become an item but when they spend the night together Ben falls seriously ill and dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Harry is certain this is payback for all the luck he’s been having.
Review:
When Harry rubs his magic amulet and steps out onto a motorway to play dodge-the-traffic you know this series has found its groove. Maybe you should also wonder why he doesn’t cause a pile-up (surely drivers would still swerve to avoid him?) but the fact you don’t at the time means the show has successfully enticed your disbelief into a vacation on Costa Del Suspension.
While the pilot for Lucky Man seemed to toy with its central concept a little unenthusiastically, episode two is a lot more fun. Still not the Marvel comic book affair that the “Stan Lee” connection and opening title sequence might suggest, but maybe an Image or Vertigo comic at least. Sky might have done better to show the first two episodes as a two-hour premiere because “Win Some, Lose Some” feels like a far better blueprint for the series; you get a stronger idea of the tone, where the plot arc’s going and how the characters interact.
It also has that classic turning point from a Stan Lee origin story when theme moves from “power corrupts” to “with great power comes great responsibility”; that moment when the newly-empowered protagonist goes from hedonist to hero having learnt some great life lesson. Admittedly in Marvel comics that life lesson rarely involves going to the dogs (well, not literally at least) but that’s kind of prosaic take on superheroics is already becoming part of the fun of the series.
From the playful street con artist opening to the tragic events at the end of the episode this feels more like a show at ease with its comic roots, and more comfortable combining them into a more UK-friendly cop format. It’s still creaky in places – and leaves Nesbitt with far too much work to do flesh out Harry (both writers so far seem for more interested in Suri) – but there’s much to enjoy here, and an awful lot going on.
There appear to be three parallel plots but who knows, maybe they’re interconnected but something other than just Harry. There’s the murders, which seem to be spilling out into some kind of international money laundering/gangster affair; there’s the guys after the magical amulet; there’s Winter and Orwell who want Harry off the force (with not-so-subtle hints that there may be more to them than overzealous coppers… they’re downright creepy). Any or all of them might dovetail. It’ll be interesting to find out how. Certainly it’s making the show look more complex and layered than it did after the pilot.
One main problem remains – mystery woman Eve. She turns up, mumbles some random nonsense and gets all annoyed at Harry while giving him pretty much zero incentive to do whatever it is she wants him to do. In all other regards, Harry is presented at the kind of tough, no-nonsense cop who’d handcuff her to the neatest railing and interrogate her with charm and sarcasm until she produced some answers. Instead, he turns into a rabbit caught in headlights when she turns up, apparently incapable of using the word, “Why?” It’s too much of a genre cliché and Lucky Man doesn’t even seem to be interested in inverting or subverting it in any way.
But overall, a very confident and promising evolution from the pilot. We’re definitely in this for the long haul now.
The Good:
- The show has much more fun with the concept of luck this week. The motorway scene is exactly the kind of thing the show needs.
- Stroppy Josie is brilliant: “Boss there’s a sudden smell of bacon in the shop.”
- A few unexpected developments; not twists so much as things plot beats that make the show more intriguing. Such as the fact that Harry’s brother is a dodgy dealer; Winter apparently seeing himself as some kind of avenging angel; the Asian assassins; Anna being employed by someone unknown to represent Grey.
- Nesbitt remains a solid centre for the show, but Sienna Guillory is turning out to be the real break-out star. Her method of stepping up her relationship with Ben was just adorable (“I’ve decided that we’re going out now, officially, because I might love you a bit, and I think you love me a bit back, mainly because you’re not stupid… Okay? So can I come in and get naked with you please?”). You also have to love the way she reels in Harry’s brother, engaging him on an intellectual level then impishly reveals that actually, she’s just found the perfect leverage she needs to blackmail some info out of him.
- The whole funeral scene iss a understated masterpiece of black comedy – from the the two girls taking a selfie by the coffin to the tribute poem containing such gems as, “G is for gorgeous… you even looked good in the bath.” Also, was it just us or did the letters in the poem spell “Kalig” not Kayleigh?
- Subtle, clever final image; broken mirrors traditionally mean seven years bad luck.
The Bad:
- The police procedural elements too often revert to huge swathes “but what if…?” speculation that come across like aural wallpaper.
- The way Harry turned up at Anna’s house for breakfast was slightly creepy.
- Mystery woman Eve is supposed to be enigmatic but is actually just irritating.
- Nobody would mistake bald machete guy for a bailiff, least of all a coppers wife. Surely her first thought would be, “Oh god, who wants to kill my husband now?”
- The flashback to Harry’s childhood trauma worked well enough on its own; it didn’t need Harry to spell it out in dialogue afterwards.
And The Random:
- No wonder Ben falls ill. The ambulance guys send him home wearing the same clothes that he was wearing when he fell in the Thames twice in one night.
- The “follow the lady” opening sequence was a fun and surprising way to open the episode but it might have worked more effectively if it had fed straight into the main story rather than being interrupted by the title sequence.
- Isn’t the point of street shysters who invite you to “Follow The Lady” that they cheat and pocket/palm the “Lady” so you’ll never be able to select it? No wonder the guy is bamboozled by Harry’s success.
- You may recognise Stephen Thompson from BBC Three zombie series In The Flesh where he played Philip in both seasons.
Review by Dave Golder
• Read our other Lucky Man reviews