Series Review: "Vinyl" (2016).

"He didn't see the future. He heard it." This is Vinyl. This period drama television series created by Mick Jagger, Martin Scorsese, Rich Cohen and Terence Winter, and written by Winter and George Mastras. It premiered on HBO, and ran from February 14, 2016 to April 17, 2016. The series centres on Richie Finestra, a shrewd record executive from New York, who tries to promote American Century, his music label, amidst the changing music scene in the 1970s.

In the mid 1990s, Mick Jagger proposed the idea for what eventually became this series to Martin Scorsese. Scorsese said that he and Mick Jagger tried at first to develop the material into a full-length feature film. However, under the title The Long Play, it was picked up by HBO. Once it was decided to be developed as a TV show, Winter wrote the pilot but his idea was to hand over the show to George Mastras because he was busy with Boardwalk Empire (2010). The show took so long to be made that Winter ended up running it because Boardwalk Empire finished on its own. In 2012, Bobby Cannavale was cast after he was offered the role of Richie Finnestra while doing a season-arc for Boardwalk Empire, so he had years to prepare it. Paul Ben-Victor, P. J. Byrne, Max Casella, Ato Essandoh, J. C. MacKenzie, Jack Quaid, Ray Romano, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Juno Temple, and Olivia Wilde rounded out the series' cast. HBO then ordered ten episodes. Scorsese had hoped to direct further episodes of the series. Winter left his position as showrunner at the end of the first season due to creative differences, leaving the position to Scott Z. Burns. In late February 2016, its renewal for a second season was announced by HBO's programming president Michael Lombardo. However, in late June 2016, HBO announced that they have decided not to proceed with a second season.

The series stars Cannavale, Ben-Victor, Byrne, Casella, Essandoh, MacKenzie, Quaid, Romano, Hjort Sørensen, Temple, and Wilde. Despite superb performances, the main problem with the characters themselves and their lack of development, was that the story just barely started and you just got invested.

Though heavy on melodrama, Vinyl elevates the nighttime soap with its top-notch cast, musical entertainment, and engrossing plots. It's premiere is a densely packed affair, dealing as it must with character introductions, background details and multiple-storyline establishment, but it handles the job in a smooth and entertaining fashion. It soars highest when probing the conflicts and contradictions of the music business, making high drama out of the dysfunction lying just beneath the surface. Tense and tawdry, it is the rare network drama to know exactly what it is from the jump. Forget TV dramas about police departments and hospital wards - a show about a record label comes with all that conflict, plus outfits, plus songs. One would have hoped that Scorsese, Jagger and Winter, who teamed up on the series Boardwalk Empire, can keep this good stuff coming even as they follow their over-the-top storyline.

Simon says Vinyl receives:

Also see my review for The Wolf of Wall Street.