Viva Laughlin

Attention, there will be no talent! This is what should be played before the show starts. I haven't seen "Blackpool" but if it's anything like Viva Laughlin then i don't really care. Not only was this show hard to watch but it was incredibly presumptuous. With annoying, unrelatable stock characters trying to slip smoothly into likable characters was like watching the proverbial grass growing. And just when you think that maybe halfway through the show they might have a twist to interest you in seeing the next episode.. well there isn't! No one wants another compulsively suspicious detective chasing thin air or a family who is so boring and cliché that you'd rather go to sleep because that'd be more entertaining than watching this show! And what on earth is with the singing(miming)? And who wants yet another casino show? HUH? SERIOUSLY??!! ARGH!! Can I be the first but hopefully not the last to say, "What the hell Hugh Jackman!" I mean talk about cringe-worthy experiences! I am all for a new series, i'm very open to new ideas and even old ideas made better but this "Viva Laughlin" is garbage, maybe worse because some garbage can be recycled into something better.

Viva Laughlin is perhaps the most strange new show to come along in quite some time. Lloyd Owen, who was excellent in Monarch of the Glenn is terrible in this role. He does perhaps the worst job ever for an English actor attempting to do an American accent. Close on his heels is executive producer/ actor Hugh Jackman. Both come off sounding totally flat and could do to take some voice lessons. While they're at the lessons, perhaps some singing lessons would also be in order. The show has an annoying habit of the actors spontaneously launching into song at totally irrelevant times. Thus far all the singing has been terrible with the only bright spot being Elvis singing back-up. Think of the t.v. show Las Vegas on a really bad hair day combined with Grease and High School Musical. It's not a pleasant combination.

The overall plot is generally interesting and there are some big name actors involved but the package as a whole probably appeals to far few people to be viable.

The first time the hero starts dancing to "Via Los Vegas" and hops on the casino table I let it pass. The third time, when Bunny starts singing "One Way or Another" by Blondie, and go into a dancing routine, I clicked the show off an erase it from my DVR.

Why did they do this? Were they trying to make it different then "Las Vegas"? They succeeded but it's awful. I suppose if you like musical it will work for you but I don't find the musical form that entertaining.

It looked like it could of been a good story but they messed it up for me my making it into a musical. What next, turn CSI into a musical? Have singing, rotten corpse?

Viva Laughlin looks like it was done in Bollywood.

Viva Laughlin is fun to watch, but only in the same way that the movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is fun to watch: It's such a train wreck, you can have fun seeing how bad it gets: The premise is uninteresting. The characters are uninteresting. Most of the musical numbers are lamely choreographed without flair or style. The dialogue is hilariously bad, replete with clichés and bizarre mixed metaphors.

The one bright note (pun intended) in Viva Laughlin is Hugh Jackman's delightfully cheesy interpretation of a gangster-businessman and his rendition of "Sympathy for the Devil." Unfortunately, that character is not a regular character so he would not appear that often.

The other major actors are just awful--and so is the show.

Could be a good show if they drop the music crap! What are they thinking? Vegas went into the crapper when they spent less time on James Caan catching crooks and too much on the girls P.R. Did you ever see The Godfather break into a song before he "Made an Offer?" These guys would never survive the first round of American Idol! Won't watch it again unless they get rid of the sing-along. I hope the producers read these and maybe try and spruce it up and replace the Sopranos with some newer mobster show. Maybe we have too much to choose from in America than England does but this will never fly here. And does Melanie Griffith need the money that bad she would humiliate herself and waste good acting abilities on a show like this?